Getting a Head Start

Good morning everyone! I'm officially on vacation this week (though I do have to go in for a few hours tomorrow to do payroll) and I'm trying to get a "head start" on the New Year. Not that I'm in a hurry or anything - I'm just waaaaaaay behind in my scrapbooking, computer file organization and tax preparation for my stamping business. So last night I started my 2009 digi-scrapbook - and what better place to begin than at the end with the new Christmas photos.

Santa Claus always makes an appearance at my husband's family Christmas and EVERY family member has his or her turn sitting on Santa's lap to open presents. This page is a collage of my husband's parents, my hubby, all of our nieces and nephews on his side (except Andrew who is serving our country in Dubai) and a couple of my sister-in-laws. My favorite photo of the day is the large center photo in this page. My sister-in-law from Texas wanted an outdoor photo with Santa (my son in costume). He unexpectedly grabbed her up and acted as if he were going to dump her over the porch rail into the snow. She was laughing so hard her nose is all wrinkled!

It was a lovely Christmas with his family this year. All of my hubby's siblings were together in the same place for the 1st time in 17 yrs. so I made it a point to get a photo of my in-laws and their children. My DH is in the back row - 3rd from the left. Isn't he cute??? He's getting so gray now I think he should play Santa next year. Look at those rosy cheeks - don't you think he could do it?

Speaking of DH - his birthday is the day after Christmas so in the midst of all that hustle and bustle we always have to remember to celebrate his birthday too. I made this card for him and instead of a birthday cake (he's diabetic), my sister-in-law, Giselle, made him a wonderful, Lebanese breakfast treat called Knefay. It's made with white cheese, semolina and toasted wheat or bread crumbs and baked. While it's still warm you drizzle a little sweetened rose syrup over it. Mmmmmmmm!!!! It's delicious. In fact, I have a piece waiting for me in the kitchen as soon as I finish this post.

I used almost all Stampin'Up! product on this card. The cardstock is Kraft, Chocolate Chip and Bashful Blue. I hope the colors look true on your computer monitor becaue this color combination is really pretty. The stamps are Special Day Background Stamp, Lovely as a Tree, and Itty Bitty Backgrounds all stamped in Chocolate Chip Dye Ink. The ribbon and copper brads were purchased at a local craft store.

Thanks for taking a few minutes of your day to check out my life. I hope your Christmas was as nice as our was and that you enjoyed your day- whatever you were doing and whoever you were with.

Until Next time -

happy stamping.

Jill

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

If you are going to be as busy as I am tomorrow you won't be touching your computer - so thought I'd better get my Christmas Wish out to you today. I hope your day will be filled with love, family, friends, good food, wonderfully wrapped presents and the Spirit of the Living Lord - JESUS.

This past Saturday I hosted a customer appreciation luncheon for all of my wonderfully supportive customers. Out of 14 who said they would be able to make it, 12 attended and I hope had a fun day eating, visiting and getting creative with the make n take project which was this little snowflake candle and gift box. These are very easy to make and make delightful little gifts.

The photos below are just a few that I took at the luncheon.

Our yummy lunch. BBQ, scoops with cheese and spinach dips, cookies, candies and beverages.

Mmmmmm! Don't these look delicious??? My favorites are the no bake peanutbutter & chocolate cookies -Oh - and the SNICKER bars, peppermint chocolate bark and the little gingerbread cookies. The divinity was okay - but I'm not a fan.


This is a photo of 2 of the place settings. Each person received a little thank you gift with a card and blueberry flavored candy cane.


Inside each gift bag was a little snowman figurine. Most were the "sitter" snowmen - aren't they adorable???? I should have gotten one for myself because I think they are so cute - but sadly I didn't think of that until later and by that time they were all gone.



Thanks for visiting today on this rainy Christmas Eve (at least it's rainy in East Peoria, IL). Christmas Blessings to each of you.

Jill

MOONLIT CHRISTMAS

Sorry I haven't been posting lately - I haven't been sloughing off though. I have been busily working away on gifts and cards but couldn't post them because I didn't want the recipients seeing them online before receiving them in person. That's like giving a sweater that 70 people have already worn - just NOT the thing to do!!!! LOL! I THINK I am safe to show this card though as I have sent out my Christmas cards and hopefully the recipient of this one already has it and opened it.

I created the main image for this card some time ago - maybe even last year (I am old now and can't remember things as well as I used to) - but did not use it for the card I was making. When it came time to mail my Christmas cards this year I found I was short 22 cards. I don't know how that could possibly be the case because it seems like all I had been making was Christmas Cards since October - but it was true - I still needed 22 cards and QUICK! So I looked through my file of cards - these are the ones I make when the mood strikes and then file away for future use - and was fortunate to find about 12 Christmas cards I had made throughout the years at classes/workshops etc. These would definitely come in handy THIS year but I still needed to make 10 cards and I only had one afternoon to do it. WHAT TO DO?????

I have a "junk" drawer in my studio that holds all the bits and pieces of things I've colored, created etc that are usable but were not used on the project I created it for. This image was in that drawer and would be perfect for a quick card.

To create the background I tore a large post it note to form "snow" and laid it across the bottom of a piece of WHISPER WHITE cardstock. Then I punched a circle (also from a post-it note) and placed it just above the snow to form a moon. Once the post-its were in place I brayered the exposed cardstock in NOT QUITE NAVY then sponged around the edges of the sky in NIGHT OF NAVY. The trees are from the SU! LOVELY AS A TREE stamp set and are stamped in MEMENTO TUXEDO BLACK ink. I added STARDUST STICKLES to make the snow sparkle and used a SU!SIGNO WHITE GEL PEN to create the falling snow. The image was layered onto a base of VERY VANILLA cardstock which was created using a SPELLBINDERS SCALLOPED RECTANGLE NESTABILITIES and then layered onto a piece of SU! NIGHT OF NAVY cardstock. The cardbase is SU!VERY VANILLA cardstock and is embossed using the BIGSHOT and a the CUTTLEBUG SWISS DOTS embossing folder. SU! NIGHT OF NAVY organdy ribbon (retired) and a snowflake button add the finishing touch.

Thanks for being patient and hanging in with me while I took a short break from posting. My New Years resolution is to create and post 2-3 projects a week. I hope I can keep to that schedule.

As always -
thanks so much for taking the time to visit my blog. I know you are all busy with your own lives and projects so I really do appreciate your show of support when you visit and comment on mine.

Until next time -
Happy Stamping!
Jill

DECEMBER BIRTHDAY

One of my nephews turned 10 on the 11th of December and today was his party so of course I had to make a card - I couldn't have done it weeks ago - it HAD to be this morning, the day of the party. (I also had to buy the gift today - it also couldn't have been purchased earlier!) So anyway, as I looked through my kajillion stamps and stamp sets it occurred to me - not for the first time either - that I don't own ANY stamps that work well for those masculine tween cards. I have the SU! Fishy Friends set which make really cute cards - but only if you're an adult or under the age of 7. 10 year old boys would find them just a way bit babyish - especially THIS 10 year old. So what to do????

Thankfully it's winter and snowmen are great for winter cards no matter how old or young you might be. A year or so ago I made a Christmas card using an adorable snowman stamp from WHIPPER SNAPPER. His arms are spread wide and I strung a string of plastic mini tree lights from hand to hand. I love this little guy - he's just toooo cute. I wanted to use this stamp for Tony's bday card so I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink on SU!Whisper White cardstock and colored him with alcohol based markers.




Then I cut off his arms (OH NO!) and reattached them so they could hold a birthday cake complete with candles. I told Tony the snowman had to be really careful not to get the flames to close to his body and face or he would melt. Without even looking down at the card in his hand, his response was to say matter of factly "that's why he's all covered up." I loved it!!!! Not only did he "get it", his response also showed me that he really took the time to look at the card I made for him. How many 10 year old boys care as much about the card as they do the present????


RECIPE:
Whipper Snapper Snowman Stamp
Birthday Cake Stamp (unknown mfr)
Very Vanilla cardstock
More Mustard Cardstock
Whisper White Cardstock
Designer Papers sponged in Close to Cocoa
Copic Markers
Buttons
Twine


Thanks for visiting -
Until Next time -
Happy Stamping.

Jill