365 Days

Goodness.. this is amazing punch art card... wish I would have seen it before Christmas...

"The Reason for the Season"

by Nancy Dawson

but hey now it gives me nearly 365 days to get busy

and make some for next year...

Have a wonderful last day of 2011...

May your year ahead be filled with love and laughter!

Tea Shoppe for Two

Here's a great new card made by Debbie Henderson with the new Tea Shoppe stamp set from the Occasions Mini catalog.... which begins January 3rd... and of course I'll be making a similar card using this set at my February 4th Stamp-a-Stack at the Reed Ranch!!!... be sure to sign up soon!

She used the new  "Framelits" and the largest of the "Labels Collection" to make the card background layer. All you do is keep the folded cardstock on the inside of the framelits and once your cut is completed, your fold is still there! She also chopped a little bit off the bottom to make it flat and added a layer of "Gold Cardstock" with the next size down in the "Framelits".

The stamped images are from a new stamp set called "Tea Shoppe" and embossed with "VersaMark Ink" and "Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powder". The tea cup is hand cut and notice the and additional "Gold Brads" to the centers of each flower. She used the "Decorative Label Punch" for the sentiment.

Do you like the little doily that sits under the tea cup? That was cut with the "Paper Doily Sizzlit" which is also a new item.... but only used part of it for the card. She accented the doily with 2 branches from the "Bird Punch" cut in "Gold Cardstock".

Card Supplies:

• Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Gold, Cherry Cobbler
• Stamps: Tea Shoppe
• Inks: Cherry Cobbler, VersaMark
• Tools: Bird Punch, Paper Doily Sizzlit, Labels Collection Framelits, Decorative Label Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals
• Accessories: Gold Brads

Hope it's your "cup of tea" !!!!

Quilt Clocks and Cards

Jerry has been working on some clocks he's making for the Sandy Rivers Quilting Retreat in Mercer Maine... the idea will be to have the background on the face of the clock to be an actual quilt fabric square either pre-made or personally made by any of her quilters, perhaps to match something they are making for themselves....

We found some great ideas on an Amish clock and cabinet making site.... but think the background was just either painted to printed on paper... so that gave me the idea to make a pattern from SU paper and emboss it to give it a quilted look... but I just found this idea on Karen Barber's blog... so she's done all the work already... made with these awesome Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up and emboss the square with the Wallpaper or Square Lattice Embossing Folder...

Here's her instructions.... You start by making a bunch of one inch squares.... You need four of the DSP, four of the Early Espresso and eight of the vanilla. Then you cut all but the four corner vanilla squares in half from point to point crosswise. Start in the middle of SU's grid paper andmake your star by using the lines on the grid paper to keep things straight. Then you trim the edges, you have glued your quilt right down to the grid paper and just cut the entire pattern square out. Then choose an emobssing folder and run the whole thing through your Big Shot to give it the quilted appearance.

Hey I can even use the metal arrows from 

SU for the clock hands!!!

Think it'll work???

Christmas Day

It was a beautiful Christmas Day... the weather was our typical "summer-like Christmas weather" as it must have been at least 70 degrees. We had our church Christmas Eve service the afternoon before, so we were able to sleep in a little and then started the day with a nice walk down Crocker Road.

Spent the morning putting together some veggie trays and deviled eggs to take up to Holly's folks as we were invited to have dinner with them up in Fontana. Holly's brother Brian and his wife Charlotta, who just had their baby this past summer, had her parents visitng from Sweden so we were delighted to meet them and spend time all together as family! So Brayden's cousins name is Mattis.... he's five months old now and just as sweet as could be!

And here's Charlotta's parents with Mattis..

Don and Darleen are amazing and made it so special for everyone to be there! They prepared a wonderful dinner of both lasagna to please the Italian side of the family... and traditional turkey dinner for the "traditionalist"!!! Of course there was no lack of sweets in the house either... goodness!



Did you notice what the napkin said... look closely....

I think she knew I was coming!!!

We arrived just before Holly and David.. so were tickeled to see Brayden walk in the door all dressed up for the special occasion!

Darleen had us each hunt for an ornament with our  name on it on the tree....

plus she even gave us each our own stockings filled with goodies and treats...

and lottery cards!!!

Here's Holly still trying to find her ornament...

I found mind...

 

And the boys trying to find their's...

Allen, Jerry and Brian

 Mattis spending some time with his Great Grandma Angie...

She celebrated her 90th birthday on Christmas Eve!!

It was so fun to watch Brayden when he arrived....

he has a pretty good routine down ~

so he had to show me what he does....

First give both the dogs their treats....

Next, go up stairs to grandma's room where th bird is and feed him some Cheetos...

 

And don't forget to get one yourself... hee hee hee

Next find the kitty in his cart in the bathroom...

Gotta finish that Cheetos before he goes back downstairs

and mom sees the evidence...

Looking in the mirror... Did I wipe it all off my face????

Peeking through the upstairs banisters...

Now Grandfather has BOTH his grandsons...

couldn't get him to be any happier than this!

And a great shot with Grandma too....

These are just tooo precious!!

Darleen and Angie in the kitchen getting more food ready!

 Brayden entertains himself playing ball on the coffee table...

 

Here he is patiently waiting for dinner..

  

 Here's Brayden with the birthday girl... 

Brian and Charlotta got Brayden a "circus tent" to play in...

Here's Darleen inside with him showing him how to get in and out... 

I think he looks like a magician ... making a ball disppear!!

Now you see it....

Now you don't!

Next came a rocking horse from Grandma and Grandfather...

he latched on to this one really quickly!

Another very special gift Darleen got us "moms" were sort of matching t-shirts...

the matching part was they all said "Grandma" in some language!!

Someone's getting ready for a nap.. think Mama's gonna convince him...

Here's two darling blankets Darleen made for her grandsons...

a frog blanket for Brayden...

And a duck blanket for Mattis....

 Yep.... he took a really good nap...

and now up in his pj's ready to play some more!

Looks like he's saying..

Did Santa come again while I was sleeping????

Merry Christmas everyone...

and to all a good night!