Christmas is coming...

Life got busy again these last few weeks. Just a lot of complex things going on at work, so not much happening in the way of crafting. I've been keeping track of challenges as usual and trying to find time to do one. Today it was finally time.

I've had these cards almost ready for a while...made them with my friend Angela. I missed her Stamp A Stack so I put my own spin on the cards. Here is today's cards; I'll post the rest later... I have a few still left to finish. 

I can't actually decide which card I like best. Ang's version had two white & one silver snowflake. I decided I wanted to try both all white & all silver. My background snowflakes are stamped in different spots, too.

Which of my takes on the card do you like best? Drop me a note in the comments & check out the rest of the submissions at Cupcake Inspirations!

Card Details - All Products Stampin' Up

Cardstock Whisper White, Pacific Point

Ink: Versamark, Pacific Point

Stamps: Snow Flurries??? 

Other: Pearls, Rhinestone, silver embossing powder, white embossing powder

Day 10

What a wonderful day!

I went over to see my niece again and she my worries were for naught; she didn't act more nervous than she had on Wednesday. In fact, she's warming up to me quite nicely. As long as Daddy was holding her, she was happy to give me a kiss. I got to see her twice today, which was a treat; we had a family dinner at my Aunt's house. She had a lot of fun playing with our cousin, who just turned 5. They were very sweet together.

I also attended a professional event. They had the grand opening of phase 1 of some park improvements at a local place. The new play areas/equipment look terrific and the designs for future phases are spectacular. I didn't stay very long. Just visited with some friends and colleagues, took some pictures of the proceedings, had cake, and headed home. It was very crowded with children who were NOT interested in us adults interfering with their fun.

Today's card:

Like yesterday's (and tomorrow's) card, this one is one I created at a make and take at Crafty Capers, our local stamp store. I think we made it the same day as the previous card. I say that because the snowflake is covered in Inka Gold, just like yesterday's. 

There is no stamping on this card. Everything is die cut, except the small blue snowdrops. Those are made with Pearl Pen, I think. 

Day 9

Well, today was a mixed bag. On the one hand, on Thursdays I get my favorite home support worker who does my laundry. Of all the HSWs I've had, she's one of the two best I've had, ever. And the smoke is gone! Or at least if it isn't, it's faded to the point where it's no longer noticeable. So that makes me very happy.

The bummer about today was that I did not get to see my niece. My mom called when I was out last night. He made arrangements to take her for a play date at a friend's house. The weather is pretty warm so she got to go in the little kiddie pool they have. She was so excited she barely touched her breakfast. Anyway, the friend was only available in the morning, so they had to leave right after they ate. My only worry is I wonder if she'll take a step back and start making strange with me again. She was just starting to get comfortable yesterday.

The other bummer about today... I did NOT use my time wisely. At all. Like, I can't even tell you what I did today. I played games on Facebook. I read multiple threads about local political issues. That is pretty much it. I'm at the point where I think I'll have to ask my cousin to come over and supervise me so I get off my lazy butt and clean my kitchen; it's rather pathetic, but I swear, I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to cleaning up clutter.

I love today's card. It's not perfect - there's a snowflake missing - but I have a sentimental spot for it in my heart regardless. When I say there's a snowflake missing what I mean is, when I made it, there were five. There was a small one in between the top right and centre left. It fell off and refused to go back on now matter what I did. So I gave up. It's hard to tell - I couldn't get great light to photograph this one - but there are little dots of pearl pen in a few places, and the 'Let it snow' is embossed. The snowflakes are convered in Inka Gold.

Day 2

There is really no good excuse for how late I am with this post. I was ridiculously lazy again today. I had no desire to go out in the heat. I'm also still trying to catch up on some older personal emails that have been backed up due to my focus on school district matters. So I spent far too long today working on that.

I did manage to go out at dinnertime. I got a surprise call from a friend and we went to a place I've never been for dinner. I've been there for breakfast, so I knew the food was likely good, and I was not disappointed. Now that we've lost Earl's I think Frankie's may become the new place to go.

Here is today's card.

I can take no credit for the design of this one. It was something I made last summer, at one of the Monday Coffee and a Card sessions at Crafty Capers, a local stamp store in town. I adore that snowman! I don't think I've bought him yet, and I'm not sure how much longer I can resist. 

I love the dimension in this card. I'm not sure you can tell, but the snowman was stamped on a separate sheet. We used a cutter to get a straight line to his body, fussy cut around the top half/two thirds of him, then created another straight line. That makes the ground line for the trees. The whole  piece is raised with 3D foam to give it depth. The stencilling of the snowflakes was done first, before it was laid down, and before the tree die cuts were placed in the background. This card did take a little longer than some of our Monday cards, because of the extra cutting. Still, I loved it and I can see myself trying it again, at least in some form. 

I don't have card details today, because I can't remember the products used. I know the stamping was done with Memento, the stencilling was done with Tim Holtz distress inks, and the colouring was done with Tombow markers. I think the snow on the trees is liquid applique. 

A couple challenge cards..

Yes I am here! With the Olympics on, I've been a little distracted this week. In fact, I'm going to keep this post short so that I can get back to watching a few things.

Thanks to Frozen, I'm on a quest for a more 'Olaf-y' snowman. 

This set is for the following challenges:
Addicted To Stamps & More - Challenge #82, Make Your Mark
Shop Our Stash - Oh,Shiny
Late Night Stampers - Wet or Dry Embossing

For this challenge, you simply have to use markers. I saw Frozen on Monday, so I really wanted to make a snowman themed card.  I had these images stamped and ready, so I made some card bases, found some layers in my scraps, and there ya go. I actually pillaged these embellishments from other cards that were sent to me for Christmas. I've found that as much as I like to think I am going to scrapbook individual cards, it doesn't happen. I've decided in future I'll take a photo of my card display and scrapbook that photo. That way individual cards are noted for posterity, but without the bulk of scrapping cards. I will scrap photo cards, though. I usually do a layout of those. You will note these aren't Christmas cards. I decide I needed some winter birthday cards.

The snowflake card  is for two challenges

 CAS-ology - Week 82, Bold

Just Add Ink - Just Add Stripes

I originally planned to post the kite card for that challenge - and I still may link it up - but I think the Christmas card better fits the CAS aspect of the challenge. I think the kite card may not really fit the clean & simple aspect of the challenge, so I'm entering the snowflake card in case it gets deleted. I expect the image panel may be too cluttered to be considered 'clean'. It was quite a quick, easy card to make. I think I was done in 15 minutes. And it only took that long because I chose to cut out the kites. 

I love the snowflake card, actually. It uses the painter's tape technique. If you've never heard of this idea, there are lots of great tutorials on Youtube. It's really fun and easy to do. 

Card Details - All Products Stampin Up

It's Your Day

Cardstock: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Whisper White

Stamps: Snow Much Fun, Festive Flurry

Ink: Staz On Jet Black

Other: Snowflake Punch, embossing powder, rhinestones, markers, snowflake jewels

Christmas Blessings

Cardstock: Island Indigo, Whisper White
Stamps: Snowflake Soiree

Ink: Soft Sky, Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo

Other: Dazzling Details 

Celebrate You

Cardstock: Pacific Point, Whisper White

Stamps: Send Me Soaring

Ink: Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Pear Pizzazz

Other: Scalloped polka dot ribbon

February Christmas card challenge 1/10

100 in 100 Challenge 14/100

(Almost) Superbowl Sunday

I have the football game on as I type this post.. Seattle vs San Francisco. If the 'Hawks lose, I won't have much motivation to watch the Super Bowl - hence the post title. With the exception of NHL hockey, I generally don't enjoy watching sports on television. That said, it occurs to me that I do like Payton Manning, so I can cheer for the Broncos to beat the Niners if it comes to that. At least the Patriots are out. I hate the Patriots. I mean, irrational, fire-of-a-thousand-burning-suns hate. The cheating, the attitude, all of it. I just can't stand them. Thrilled they're out again. 

Anyway... two Christmas cards today, my last two for the month to meet my quota for the SCS Christmas challenge. Cardmakers, this is an ongoing challenge you can join at any time, so we'd love to see you take part! Each month there is an optional challenge to jumpstart our mojo. Ironically, this month's challenge is Peace. I have two cards that fit the challenge. 

This first card is one that I made from some pieces I recycled. The cracked glass image and the sentiment strip were pillaged from a card I received from someone a long time ago. There was something about the original design I didn't like, so I decided to mess around an make something a little more masculine. I'm still not super happy with the layout, but it'll have to do. 

The second card is one that I had in a kit. We had made 5 cards one night at my demo's house - this would have been Christmas 2012 (I looked up the stamp set to confirm what year it came out; it was a one-off from last year's holiday catalogue). I posted another example of the set here.  The only real differences are that I changed the orientation, used a different sentiment, and I used dimensionals to raise the image panel. I think, in retrospect, that I prefer the horizontal orientation. I also should have trimmed the sentiment tomake it a wee bit smaller. I'll likely fix that soon. My trimmer, however, is in the trunk of my car and I'm too lazy to go get it tonight.

I actually got a number of cards done on Friday when I was visiting with friends, so I'll have lots to post this week. I took a bag of scraps to my friend and I've already got another one the go for when I see her on the 31st. I was looking through the pile of card bits I saved and I realized it was just NOT inspiring me anymore, so out it goes!

Back tomorrow with a Monday Make & Take!
Card Details
Wishing You Peace
Cardstock: Browns, red (Bazzill); Vintage Violet (SU)
Ink: Real Red, Vintage Violet (SU)
Stamps: Wishing You (SU)

Peace On Earth
Cardstock: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
Ink: Staz-on Black, Illuminate pad
Stamps: Frosty Friends, Snow Swirled, Four the Holidays
Other: Seam binding

Challenge Objectives
January Christmas card challenge 10/10
100 in 100 Challenge 9/100

Tip Top Tuesday

I have exciting news to share. I won the Top Tip Tuesday award for Top Tipper when I entered my snowflake cards on December 10   The result of that is that I was asked to contribute a card as a guest designer for the challenge that went live today.

The week's theme is Clean and Simple. They are featuring a terrific tutorial on paper bows. There is even a link to a pdf. I briefly considered making a bow for my project, but ultimately I couldn't. My printer is out of commission. And really, if I'm honest, I am not good at bows - even paper ones.

Given that, I just thought about what tip(s) I wanted to share. First, here is my card.

And now, my tips:

*Save your scraps, always! All the paper on this card is composed of scraps, with the exception of the base. The stamps I used are new to me, but the rest is product I have had for a while. I initially bought the pad of Winter Frost paper, which is 4.5 x 6.5, just a little bigger than the 4x5.25 we normally use for a card front. The leftover strips were perfect for flags, and I still have a few more left. The white is from my scrap bin. Scraps + a monochromatic colour scheme come together to make a card that's clean & simple, yet still cute.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to make a birthday card or add to my Christmas card stash for 2014, so I made one of each.

*Scraps work even if you want to use a punch that is the 'wrong' size. Take a look at the scrap I used to stamp the phrase Happy Birthday. Of fcourse, the word window punch is longer than this scrap. I taped it to another piece of paper, punched it out so one side was lined up perfectly, then retaped it and did the same for the other side. Quick and easy! 

 

I hope you'll hope on over to Top Tip Tuesday, give the other designers some love, check out the tutorial, and enter this week's challenge!  

My 2014 goals

As promised, I am here with my New Year's resolutions, and some cards.

I have written before about my thoughts om resolutions. I'm not a huge fan; they can be things that just serve to demoralize people when they end up not meeting their aims. I think a lot of times that's because people are externally motivated. They take on what they think they should do, rather than what they really feel called to do in their hearts. If you say you're going to lose weight, or give up sugar, or stop drinking pop (one of my issues) to please others, it will not happen - or at the  very least, it is highly likely it won't be sustainable.

So after some time in prayer, I made some decisions. I had gone back and forth as to whether I wanted to do the 'One Little Word' Challenge. I admit that initially I didn't quite get the point. In time, though, I saw how it could work for me and I've decided to take on a word for the year. I started with the word 'roar.' That sat wrong with me because, quite frankly, I couldn't bring myself to grab inspiration from a Katy Perry song, no matter how much some part of it speaks to me. Then I fell back on the word 'brave,' - also a song title, but one by an artist I like more. It still felt wrong, though; I wanted a word that captured both somehow.
I spent some time looking at concordances, thinking about favourite bible verses, studies, past conversations with my pastor,  and sermons that spoke to me, and I found the word. My word. My word is BOLD. That word encompasses where I am at in life. A lot of what I mean by that is pretty personal, so I will leave it there. My other 2014 goals are:

• I'm doing the Goodreads challenge again. I have a lot of books on my shelf calling to me, and I genuinely love to read. I'm aiming for 40 books - I think I can do more, but I know I can do 40. You can find me here

• I'm going to work on my health. I would like to aim for one to two pounds per month, but I'm less concerned about that than just being more mindful in what I eat and how I take care of myself overall.

• I'm going to finish my cousin R's album, do one for my cousin DJ, and get up to date on Jade's. R and J are both almost done; I have a bit of embellishing to do and I need to put the pages in the albums. DJ I haven't started, but I'll use R's as a model so it won't take long.

• I'm going to get MY pages in albums, and I'm going to get our family's negatives and older photos on to CD.

• I'm doing the Christmas Card Challenge (10/month) and the 100 Cards in 100 Days Challenge at Splitcoast. For the 100 cards challenge,  my Stamper's 10 Club cards and the ones I sometimes make on Monday's at the stamp store (the $2 Coffee & A Card), don't count, but Christmas cards made at those places do. 

• I'm considering doing a challenge where I use all my stamps at least once this year. I'm not willing to commit to that one  yet, though. It depends how many sets I have; I want to do an inventory first.

Well that was a lot of chatter. Here's a photo of the cards I finished up last week when my Scrappin' Sisters and I got together on the 2nd. The two single cards are from a fundraiser in the fall that the local stamp store put on for cancer. I wasn't there; I just bought the kits. It was the same weekend the scrapbook store put on their yearly event for Children's Hospital. The other cards were from a day we had here at my place in November or December. I'm friends with a CTMH demo and we had a crop here. We usually have it in her Mom's common room, but she was ill at the time.

Note - yes, the bottom right card is upside down in the photo. It isn't in real life; I just didn't realize what I had done when I put it down to photograph and I don't have time to fix it right now. The two cards are exactly the same save for the fact that I switched the dsp over and used the other side on one.

Challenge objectives

100 in 100  - 8/100
Christmas Card challenge  - 8/10

Day 21 - Three more sleeps!

Today, because I am crazy, I ventured out to the mall. I had a gift card and a gift still to buy. I probably should have done it a while ago, but budget-wise, today was the best day for me. That said, I didn't leave until after 10:00 am, and I got home before noon. And the trip included dropping off Christmas gifts at a friend's house and having an early lunch at the mall. Sigh. I do love you New York Fries. I just wish I wasn't getting old, because my stomach no longer has the same love for you that my taste buds have. The only 'junk' food I seem to still be able to have is pizza.

I got all our Stampin Up orders organized.

 I couldn't decide which of these pictures I liked best, so you get both. These are not all my items. This is what everyone ordered (minus 3 people's orders that were picked up before I thought to take a photo).

I got the rest of the Christmas gifts organized so they'll be easy for me to gather together and finish delivering over the next few days. Proud Canadian that I am, you know I had to have Hockey Night In Canada on while I sorted. Loved seeing Bertuzzi getting dumped, I confess. 

Here's my part of the stamping stash

And a quick card. I sent this one out already a while ago and just haven't blogged it. I don't even know what company the stamp is from; I know that at least some of the paper is Echo Park. This cards is one of the ones we made at the Tuesday morning card group at the store in Parksville earlier in the fall. I actually couldn't make it, but I'd signed up because I loved the cards, so I just had them give me a kit. There are two other cards that we made; I'll post those when I finish colouring them. 

Day 18 - Games and a multi challenge card

For the past number of weeks, I've been taking leadership training with a program called Youth For Christ. I would really like to get more involved with this group and put some of my skills to work with young people. Normally, we get together and play some games, then do study. Tonight, since it was our Christmas party, we skipped the study aspect and just had fellowship, fun and food. I stupidly forgot my camera (again... I'm not sure what's up with that!), so you'll just have to believe me when I say we had a blast. The food was fabulous and we played one of my favourite games. I want to call it Mad Gab, but I don't think that's the name of it. Basically, you have this hand held electronic device that gives  you a word. You try to describe the word so your teammates can guess it. There's timer, too. You pass the device on to the next person, then do the same thing, and you hope that one of your teammates is not holding the device when the timer goes off. Whichever team is NOT holding it gets a point. We didn't really keep score, and by the end we were all guessing. It was blast.

And now for today's card. This card is one I really like. I wish that the Dazzling details showed more clearly. They are there, on the snowballs, the ground, and a bit on the snowmen themselves. I took at least a half doze pictures of this card, and this one was the best of a not-great lot. At least the background snowflakes made with the Illuminate pad came through in a few spots in this version.

This card is for two challenges;

Late Night Stampers - Not Plain Jane! This challenge was to do a card that was clean simple, yet still had 3 layers, 2 embellishments, and be made in 15 minutes or less. I think I got it done in 13. 

Addicted To Stamps & More - Anything Goes! 

Card Details - All Products Stampin' Up

Cardstock: Pool Party, Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade

Ink; Staz On Black, Illuminate

Stamps: Frosty Friends, Snow Swirled

Other: Dazzling Details, Markers, Seam Binding 

Day 17 - Last Minute Christmas

I'm embarrasesed to admit I had another really relaxing day today. I finshed up a few bits and pieces on these two projects I'm posting tonight, did a lot of reading, and cleaned up around my apartment. I'm really taking advantage of the opportunity to rest in preparation for the holidays. Tomorrow it will start to get busy again.  I have one more Christmas party to attend. I also have to drop off a few things to the food bank, get a few more gift cards, and bake one more batch of cookies. Yes, I probably could have done the cookies tonight, but that would've meant a trip to the store, and with gas being the price it is, I decided I'd rather wait, since I had other errands to do tomorrow.

This first project is a gift card holder. We had so much fun playing with the envelope punch board. I really am starting to love that tool. I also caved and got the Festive Flurry set (the snowflake) and the matching dies. I didn't do a great job cutting the die here, but I am not going to worry about it. I forgot my painter's tape to hold down the die. I've thought about getting the new Stampin Up magnetic platform, but I can't justify the cost when post its and painter's tape work equally well. This gift card holder will be for my mom, and she already knows I'm not always the most coordinated individual, so she'll be impressed I got it that close.

We also made a treat bag at club. My ribbon is coming loose here, but it actually is on pretty well. Originally, it was full of Hershey's Kisses, and, well... I ate them. So I'll have to get more. The bag will contain a small card, a gift card, and some candy. What teenager doesn't love candy?

I'm entering three challenges with these projects.  For the first two challenges, I just have to confirm which sites allow me to enter more than one project and then I'll officially decide which one to link up.

Sweet Stampin - Last Minute Christmas 
SUO Challenges - Last Minute Christmas
Shopping Our Stash - One Colour (plus neutrals)

Details:

Holly Jolly Gift Card Holder
Cardstock: Bermuda Bay
Ink: Pool Party, Bermuda Bay
Stamps: Tags 4 You, Festive Flurry, Baroque Motifs
Other: Framelits, Silver Glimmer paper, Ribbon, Frosted Embellishments, Punch

Treat Bag
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler
Ink: Gumball Green, Whisper White
Stamps: Christmas Collectibles
Other: Ribbon, Doily, Treat Bag, circle punch

Day 15 - Another snowflake card

Apparently, there are a lot of design teams that either A) want to tempt the universe into giving us a White Christmas, or B) are already experiencing the white stuff. I say this because I not less than 3 more blogs have 'Let It Snow' or "Snowflake" themed challenges on right now. They are:

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge - Sweet Snowflake
 Simon Says - Let It Snow
Christmas At Sweet Stampin - Let It Snow

Here is my card:

I have to admit I do love snowflakes. I just prefer my snow on cards rather than on the ground, or falling from the sky, in real life. This card uses the emboss resist technique, which is one of my favourites. I forgot my embossing buddy again, which resulted in the halo effect around the snowflakes. I actually don't mind it for some reason. 

Card Details - All products Stampin Up

Cardstock: Pool Party

Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Pool Party, Midnight Muse
Stamps: Serene Snowflakes

Other: Silver Glimmer paper, Glossy Cardstock, clear embossing powder 

Day 10

Here I am again.... I needed a break before tackled the dinner dishes. Ok, I'm procrastinating. I had another low key day today; I had Bible Study in the morning and I've been home ever since. Tuesday afternoon is laundry time, so I love to lounge around in my pjs for the remainder of the days. That's especially true when it's cold out, as it is, still, right now.

I am going to a pot luck tomorrow night and I am stepping out of my comfort zone in terms of what I am bringing. I was given a recipe for wings that I'm told is 'easy peasy,' so I'm going to try it. I also have to make my devilled eggs; my cousin asked me to make her some for her work Christmas party on Thursday. Apparently, I need to make another small batch of cookies, too, since a couple of my friends were disappointed I didn't bring any with me to our Bible Study Christmas party today.

I have more snowflake cards today, for a couple challenges. I'm going to link up again at Addicted to CAS, plus:

Top Tip Tuesday - Snowflakes

Use It Tuesdays: Winter & Holidays. 

I really encourage you to check out the Use It Tuesdays challenge and go give the blog owner some love. This challenge is one of the ones that has been great for me in terms of helping me use up my stash. After 3 years, the team has decided not to have challenges in 2014

Top Tip Tuesday asks that you give a tip along with your card. I actually have two. One - if you are going to do a single layer with randomly stamped images and a sentiment, as I have done here, I have learned it's best to stamp your sentiment first, so  you guarantee you can get it exactly where you want it. I'm not entirely happy with where the word Noel is in the bottom card, but because I stamped it last, that was the only place it would fit. Two, SU's glimmer paper can be hard to adhere. I've found that glue dots are the best choice of adhesive.

The glimmer paper is the supply I have been hoarding that I used in this card.

Card Details: All products Stampin Up
Cardstock: Island Indigo, Whisper White
Ink: Island Indigo
Stamps: Snowflake Soiree
Other: Silver Glimmer Paper

Day 9!

How is it December 9th already? Where has the time gone? It was a low key day today. I did a couple errands & went to the Coffee & a Card event at the local stamp store. Tried not to be out too long, because the weather has been mocking us today... it keeps teasing, making us think it's going to snow. So far, no real sign of the stuff. We got a little bit last Thursday that turned into nothing. Since then, it's felt either too warm or too cold to actually snow. I hope it holds off.  This week is too busy for it, as are the days just before Christmas. I have a block of time where I can stay home if necessary from December 17th to 21st, so how about we pencil it in for there, ok God? Oh, if it were only that easy...

Given that myself and many in my community are currently thinking about the white stuff, it's only appropriate that I made a card for this challenge at Addicted to CAS

 

Card Details - All prodycts SU

Cardstock: Island Indigo, Whisper White

DSP: Winter Frost

Stamps: Snowflake Soiree

Ink: Island Indigo, Pool Party

Day 7!

I know this post is going to read as though it's Sunday, but I started typing it on Saturday before midnight. The same thing happened Friday evening. I've been up and doing things later at night so I haven't made it to the computer early enough to hit send before midnight.

Tonight we had our cookie exchange. Wonder of wonders, the last batch of cookies I made turned out great. In fact the day was so successful that I was able to have a lovely visit with a friend from out of town, go to the store and get new bags for the cookies (and these ones managed to NOT fall apart!), and make devilled eggs for our party tonight. Everyone brought appies to share. Our group of 9 became 7, but that's ok. It was lots of fun! Laughter, friendship and fine food was shared by all.

Tonight's card doesn't use any Stampin' Up products. everything is from Close To My Heart. A group of us get together periodically and the place we normally get together wasn't available, so we met here in my common room. As we were doing 20 cards and we had a limited amount of time, I made one of each saved one... I put this one together for the challenge. The original design doesn't round all the corners. Admittedly, it might be a wee bit more masculine had I not done that, but I was trying to alternate and got messed up, so I had to do them all to fix it. That's also the reason I had to use the pink side of that top panel; if I had laid it the way I had originally intended the pattern would've been wonky. 

I am entering this card in a challenge I found today:

Operation Write Home: Masculine Themed Cards

Day 6

Today was the last night of floor hockey until the kids come back to school in January. School isn't out yet for two more weeks, but they have their concerts next week, plus the Christmas Closet (details to follow) on Friday. Given all the activities at the school there's just no point in trying to get the games going.

After hockey I went to a local church and attended the 21st Annual Singing Christmas Tree. It's an indoor musical where the choir is set up on risers with lights and such so that it looks like they're singing IN a Christmas tree. It's very cool. The singing is incredible.

Yum!

I whipped up another batch of cookie dough, too. I'll have to bake more in the morning. I'm not happy with how some of the first set of cookies turned out. I'm sure they're fine, but I am just not sure they're as perfect as they should be.  The sizing of the cookies was off.. Also, I didn't mix it by hand at all. I usually do. I usually have to, because I can't quite reach my counter well enough to really get a good look and make sure everything's incorporated. For some reason I didn't with the last batch. I tell ya, maybe it's an old wives' tale, maybe it's my late Nana's influence, but I am a big fan of mixing by hand - be that by a wooden spoon for a cake/brownie batter, or with a bit of actual really using your (super clean) hands, if it's a pie crust or certain cookie dough recipes.  or Here's tomorrow's batch of dough, prior to me wrapping it up and putting it in the fridge to chill.








For some reason, the bags I have for the cookies  are not holding. I packaged up the good ones from the last set, but the stupid bags keep splitting. I'll have to look for something else tomorrow; I'm meeting a friend for coffee & there's a Dollar Store right there.

And now tonight's card. Not super happy with how it turned out, but I can live with it. I forgot to use the Embossing Buddy in some spots and so the snowflakes are a messy. But that said, in some ways this look is more realistic than the more perfect & symmetrical snowflake image. They may look like that under a microscope, but they don't appear that way to the naked eye, especially here, were the snow is often so wet. It comes down in big clumps at times.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it! ;)

I am entering the card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamps: Create a Background

SUO Challenges: Non Traditional Christmas

Card Details - All Products SUO

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso

Stamps: Warmth & Wonder

Ink: Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Metallic Encore Pad

Other: Clear Embossing Powder, Old Olive Simply Styled Embellishments

December Daily - Day 4

I have made it to day four!

Today I organized my cards. I have a box full of them that need fixing in one way or the other. Luckily, I was only short a couple Christmas cards for the dozen I wanted to give the boys for their Philippines fundraiser tonight. I haven't heard how it went yet. I hope it was a success.

 Here's a shot of all the cards together. Most of them are ones I've blogged before, and you can find close ups here, here, here, and here. The 3 new ones are below. 

 This first one I've had made for a while; I just forgot to blog it. I love the look of the paper piercing, but I hated doing it. Definitely not a technique I'll use often.

This snowflake card is a riff on the Triple Time Stamping technique. I like how it turned out. It's one I brought home to adhere; I did the stamping at a Stamp A Stack.

I'm entering this last card in the latest Addicted to Stamps & More Challenge - Clean & Simple.

Card details - All products Stampin Up!:

Sending Christmas Wishes

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

DSP Be of Good Cheer

Stamps: Scentsational Season

Ink: Gumball Green

Merry

Cardstock: Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla

Stamps: Snowflake Soiree

Ink: Marina Mist, Midnight Muse

Other: Pearls

Seasons Greetings
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler (SU Coredinations) Early Espresso, Naturals Ivory

Stamps: Curly Cute, Joyous Celebrations

Ink: Gumball Green, Early Espresso

Other: punch, ribbon, Vintage Wallpaper (retired) Embossing Folder

TSG 131

Saw a great challenge over at the TSG blog and I had to share it with everyone. They are calling for people to make a set of 5 quick and easy cards. These totally fit the bill.

What I love about this set of cards is that they each took only about 10 minutes, but they look great. We did them in a stamp a stack group and everyone's turned out a little differently. I'm not normally not particularly confident with the whole concept of random stamping a background. This time it didn't faze me because when I think about snowflakes and snowstorms, they ARE random.

Here's the whole set:

And here are close ups of the 4 that are obscured by the front card.

This one could hae used a little more bling, and maye a few more snowflakes...

I almost feel like this one has too much bling on it...

I think this one is my favorite

Or maybe this one...

I'm generally pretty pleased with the whole set, though. I wasn't sure about the text-y dsp initially, but I liked it in the end. And for once I loved the fact that SU Classic Black ink tends ot come out looking purple. It reminded me of the colour of the sky late at night.

Card Details:

All products Stampin' Up!

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, basic black

Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso

Stamps: Snow Swirled, Serene Snowflakes, The Sounding Joy

Other: Border punch, jewels

Two more cards... 3 challenges

 This post will be a short one. I realized as I was checking my Pinterest 'current challenges' folder that there were a few other challenges due today that I had almost completed, so I quickly got them done.

The first one is for the Wee Memories favorite technique challenge; I did embossing resist. I actually had this one done the day it was due and this week I had no time to post.Not sure yet whether it'll be a winter birthday card or a Christmas card.

This one is for:

• The Paper Players: Musical Theme
• Card Patterns Sketch 135

Card Details

Snowflake card

Stamps: SU Snowflake sketch... name tba

Patterned Paper: 3 Bug In a Rug

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pacific Point (SU!)

Ink: Pacific Point, Bashful Blue, Wisteria Wonder (SU!)

Other: border punch (SU), jewels (Bo Bunny), music themed embossing folder (Cuttlebug)