HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We'll be in Prague with our children and 4 grandchildren for the New Year's Eve festivities. We finally get to fly out later today, Dec. 28--only two days late. The blizzard left over 2 feet of snow at the airport, while we just got the fringe of the storm with 3 1/2 inches here. The wind, however, sounded like a freight train for two days; but it's sunny and calm this morning--much better traveling weather.

The Lord, in His Providence and Mercy, had us at home when a 50-mile/hr. gust of wind blew the back door open in the middle of the night. When Rick went downstairs later, the temp. in the Family Room was 30 degrees--what a disaster that could have been! He has since screwed a board across the door to keep it shut while we're away. Not exactly glamorous, but it will do until we can get a new door.

What are your stamping goals for 2011? I'm determined to use up as much of my stash as I can without buying more--until the Stamp Show in April, that is!

Glitterfy.com - Christmas Glitter Graphics

Best wishes to all for a Christ-centered, fun-filled Christmas!

"See" you when I get back from Prague next year. Meanwhile, check out our tree and how our cat enjoys it here.

Have a wonderful holiday and a Happy, Healthy New Year!

Scripture Cards

I've been making cards for our pastor to use as he ministers to our congregation.
What better stamps than these beautiful Scriptures from Our Daily Bread Designs!














Coupled with a new pad of dp from Basic Grey ("Archaic",) the soft colors fit very well with soothing words of encouragement. The lettering used is large enough for the stamp to be the focal point of the card. As you can see, I use very little embellishment, making the cards more postage friendly while keeping them on the masculine side for the pastor's use.

These cards will be entered in the Our Daily Bread Designs challenge for a chance to win a gift certificate at ODBD for more of their beautiful stamps. For other cards using their beautiful stamp sets, click HERE.

(Meanwhile, my own challenge is postponed until after the holidays.)

SET YOUR TIVO!

Our son-in-law, Chris, is part owner/manager of a new hostel in Prague which will be featured on the Today Show Dec. 9th. Not only is The Mosaic House sleek and modern (already a success!) but is also "green" which I assume is the main interest for the show. Camera crews have already been there to film. Enjoy!

(For a further look at the Mosaic House, you can check it out here.) There are shared rooms for backpackers and luxurious single rooms for world travelers, all at reasonable rates. The decor is stunning, the food outstanding and the staff friendly.

If I sound like a proud mother-in-law, it's because I am!

Flourishes White-Out

Here's my card for the Flourishes Winter White challenge. For the first layer, I used my Scor-Pal to make the diagonal lines. The next layer was a CB swiss dots folder underneath the CB snowflake folder. The top snowflake was done with a Marvy punch with a snowflake brad added in the center. Silver twine finished it off.

This was a fun challenge!

Christmas Card Workshop

Today was the workshop at my house where everyone made 2 each of 3 designs. The designs I came up with worked really well, and we all had a lot of laughs as we put them together.

Joan, on the left, is my "regular" stamping buddy; Debby on the right is a new stamper who is lots of fun to watch as she is constantly amazed that she CAN do this.

Ruth and Jackie, in the second picture, were happy to show off their cards. These were the snowflake ones. There was also one with a candle, held by Joan. Last was a candy cane design with the candy cane story printed up for the inside.

To add to the cheery mood, we had a few snow showers earlier this morning before they arrived.

I'm so blessed to have such fun friends!

(If you click a second time on a card, you can get an even better view.)

Christmas Cards Are In the Mail!

Whew! I just dropped 80 cards into the letter drop at the post office yesterday, with the remaining 20 to be hand delivered. What a relief to get them all on their way!

Have you seen the new Forever postage stamps? They're 4 images of pine boughs and berries/pine cones and are just right for Christmas or winter cards. I bought enough to use next Christmas too! Now all I have to do next year is remember where I put them ;).

Yesterday was also tree-decorating day (See 2008 post for a photo.) Today I'll be cleaning up and preparing for the Christmas card workshop here tomorrow. Once that's done, I can concentrate on Christmas shopping and wrapping gifts for the next 2 weeks.

I truly enjoy the hustle and bustle of Christmas, but I also like to take the time for reflections on the true meaning and purpose of the season. I challenge you to do the same.

Merry Christmas!

Give Thanks

Although it looks gray here (probably because of the gray skies today) this card is on Crumb Cake cardstock from SU. I pulled out a folder of pre-stamped images from last year and used the indian corn as my starting point. After coloring it with markers and cutting it out, I turned to Anna Wight's "Give Thanks" set for the sentiment.

A striped dsp border, a Martha Stewart border punch, some rafia from my stash and embroidery floss inside (above the striped paper) and on top all added to the Fall look. Three dot sparklers from Stampendous provide a little bling that is also postage friendly.

Among my reasons to be thankful are all my stamps and supplies that not only bring me great pleasure as I create with them, but also bring blessing to those who receive them. It seems letter writing has become a lost art in this day of texting and emailing! However, that's what makes getting a card so much more special.

If I had to name the one thing for which I am most thankful, it would have to be the greatest blessing the Lord has ever given me--salvation in Christ.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge

This stamp and die set is sooooo versatile--I just love using it!

Whether you do the poinsettia in white, pink or red, it looks great every time. On this card, I opted for the white with a gold glitter center. The die cuts out all the little openings on the sides, which makes this a 5-minute card (yes, really!) I used the stamp for the background also.

The sheer ribbon behind the image adds a litter shimmer without being too much. The poinsettia was mounted with a dimensional, and stickers were added at the corners to look like brads.

For a look at some of the other cards in the ODBD challenge, click HERE.

SHINY BERRIES

Using the SU "Sketch It" set, I first stamped the wreath in green, added the scriggles in a darker green, and stamped the red berries around. With black ink, I stamped the greeting. Using a hole punch, I punched out all the berries using the red ink as a guide and set it aside while I stamped some swirls from "Fresh Fillers" on the red card with Versamark.

Then came the fun part--making the berries shine. All I did was punch a large circle of red foil and tape it on the back of the wreath so that the shiny paper would show through. After adding the red metallic bow, I attached it to the card with dimensionals.

This was a quickie card, for sure!

(Click on photo for a closer look.)

OLW--Five Colors

Here's a card that actually looks worse IRL! That's quite appropriate in this case since the subtitle for this week is "Colour Me Bad."

This started out fine until I ran some gray "shadow" lines under the tree. It didn't look right, so I kept adding more, and more...and more...until I had quite a mess. Let me warn you: glitter doesn't cover up large blotchy areas like this one. White snow might have worked better; but I couldn't find it in my stash before the glue dried, so I reached for a jar of chunky glitter. Maybe it will improve when it all dries (HA!)

This one's headed for the trash once I link it to the One Layer Wed. challenge on Simplicity--I should at least get "credit" for using 5 colors and colouring it bad!

Second Snowfall

I like this better--consider it tweaked! (See post below.)

Snowfall Instead of Fall Leaves

This is my first attempt at CASEing a beautiful Fall card done by Julie Marshall, posted on Oct. 15th, here, but it still needs some tweaking. I think I'd like mine better with a few less snowflakes next time.

I started with stamping a portion of French Script on the lower left of the white piece, then spritzing some blue ink diagonally across with a blow pen. Next, I gently pressed a light tan ink pad on the right side. Using various shades of blue inks, I stamped snowflakes of assorted sizes. The white ribbon was tied around the first layer only, the white panel was attached to the very vanilla panel with ds tape, and both were mounted on the blue cardstock with dimensionals.

The sleigh bell was punched out of blue foil paper with a Martha Stewart punch I just bought yesterday and added over the white ribbon with a dimensional. For the final touch, I added some Ice Stickles to the center of each snowflake.

In a way, it's certainly appropriate to swap out leaves for snowflakes since no two are alike and they both fall from the sky! (Unfortunately, they also both have to be removed from yards and driveways.)

Autumn Corn Stalks

One of the things I like about this time of year is that, once the field corn has been harvested, the fields are cleared and you can enjoy the wide open spaces again. What was once vibrant green has turned brown and been chopped up for silage for the local dairy farms. That's the look I tried to capture here.

I used colored pencils for this card, with added sparkle on the corn, tassels and weeds below. Spica pens provide the fine glitter--I highly recommend them! (If you click to enlarge and then click a second time, you can see the effect.)

Vellum Snowflake

This card using vellum was inspired by a Nov. 2nd post on Cat's Creations (here) and I just had to try it! Instead of a snowman, I white embossed a snowflake from a SU set.

The vellum is folded over a piece of Very Vanilla cs and secured on the back with double stick tape. After placing a clear gem in the center, I added a glue dot behind it for extra hold. I then added a strip of white cs that was punched with a Martha Steward lace edge. I attached the green cs and sheer ribbon to the Very Vanilla card base and mounted the snowflake piece with dimensionals.

What appealed to me about Cat's card was that the vellum covered a separate piece attached over the card front, making it easier to hide the tape and glue dot.

Simple Saturday #19

My Next Stamping Tower

If I lived here in this castle, one of those towers would be just perfect for stamping! It is located in Karlstejn, about a 45-min. ride from Prague, CZ.

After the long uphill walk (that's Owen in the foreground, leading the way) we took the tour of the inside. The rooms were huge with very high ceilings. I was imagining how many stampers the rooms could accommodate! The valley views would be very inspirational, too!

It would need Ott lamps for good lighting, though; especially on gray days like this one. Then I'd add large tables on warm carpets, wall tapestries for sound absorption, and huge wooden cabinets for supplies. Oh, and lots of electrical outlets for heat guns, a coffee station and my computer--all the comforts of home with a little castle splendor thrown in!

(Click on photo twice for a closer view. For more photos of our trip, use the Fox Mtn. link at sidebar for our family blog.)

Pine Tree Christmas

This card was fun putting together. It all started with the pine tree dsp left over from last year. Since I wanted to emphasize the pine tree theme, I ran a piece of metallic brown cs through the Cuttlebug with a Fiskars wood grain embossing plate and cut it long and narrow to simulate a tree trunk. After tying some green embroidery floss around it, I taped it to the left side of the card.

For the greeting, I stamped the sentiment on white and ran it through the CB with a Nestabilities oval die. Then I sponged some green ink on the edges before removing it from the die, leaving a white border. Using two of my peg stamps, I added the pine and pine cones to the bottom center, then popped it up with dimensionals.

I love how the peacefulness of this design reflects the sentiment.

Christmas Lace

Here's another easy Christmas card which is also postage friendly.

After stamping the Bible verse on Very Vanilla cs, I ran it through my Cuttlebug with a Nestabilities oval. After taping the dark green dsp onto the Sage Shadow cs base, I added the lace and secured the oval over it with double-stick tape.

For the flower, I used one from a Hero Arts flower packet and added a red center with one of the shapes from the SU Boho Blossoms punch. A Stampendous dot sticker adds some glimmer.

This card is destined for one of my friends whose house is Victorian and reflects her style. I hope she enjoys it!

FROM MY FILE--Sunflower

Here's another card from my Pre-Stamped Images file that I stamped years ago!

The petals were done with SU markers, the center with chalks. The leaves and stem were colored in with markers also. The seeds on the border were enhanced with a black Gelly Roll pen. For a final touch, I used Inkessentials "Glossy Accents" for the dew drops.

The image is mounted at an angle with dimensionals over a yellow sun dsp on kraft cs. The raffia adds a hint of Autumn to the card.