BAKING and making up a storm

We spent Monday night baking and making some of our traditional Christmas goodies. They are to be put into packages for our landlords and our neighbors. Here is what our neighbors gave us (gift basket)

We made oreo truffles and peanut butter oreo truffles


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll-Up

Dipped Pretzels



and Cranberry Noels (pecan cranberry shortbread)

and packaged it all up nicely like this...



complete with Italian translation for each item

Crafty Husband????

On Sunday my Beloved decided he really needed to wrap some presents and put them under the tree for me. He seems to always wait until almost the last minute. I don't mind I just think he is funny. Well, he was upstairs quite a while wrapping presents. I didn't think anything of it. I was preparing dinner for our English bible study group. We had a nice dinner and study. After everyone left I noticed something odd under the tree.

It was this envelope.


I giggled to myself. My dearest was trying to decorate the envelope quickly and this is what he came up with. Now he also made tags for the other presents he put under the tree. Here is what he did... He was trying to make them similar to the tags that I threw together for the other gifts. Like this...

He did a good job don't you think? He even made sure they matched.

Just so you know when I said I giggled I wasn't laughing at James. Rather I was tickled that he thought enough about making my presents pretty that he tried to make tags and embellishments himself. He was a little upset though that I didn't LEAVE my Christmas stamp sets out on my table so he could use them. Doesn't he know I put them away when I am done ~ I do ~ most of the time.

What a sweet guy! Gotta love a man that tries to make things pretty for his crafty wife.

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #20

So I decided to join Dawn's challenge this week. Really got my mojo working. Wish I had the time to craft all day but alas that is not to be.

Here is my card for this week's color challenge. Except for Waltzingmouse vintage label stamp set all products and images are PTI.

I stamped the flourish type leaf from papertrey ink's Turning a New Leaf stamp set in Terracota Tile and then embossed it with clear embossing powder. Really makes the image pop off the card. I stamped polka dots from Polka Dots Basics II in spring rain on a strip of kraft cardstock. Then I used an EK success punch on the Spring Rain card stock which has Background Basics: Textstyle II stamped on it in Spring Rain. I distressed the edges of all pieces of cardstock with the Vintage Distressing Ink Duo. I used my cuttlebug and nesties to cut the label, stamped the label with a sentiment from Signature Greetings and stamped the label image with Waltzingmouse Vintage Label stamp set. I finished the card off with a beautiful strip of Dark Chocolate Satin ribbon. Hope you enjoy!

sorry the picture turned out a little blurry. Really is pretty IRL.

December 1 - Christmas Cards

In the previous post I added photos of my December Daily album. I thought I would I try a short post daily journaling what will go in my album. This will help me to stay on track with what I am doing and remember what I meant to do for each day.

I finally finished up my Christmas cards. Every year I say I am going to have them done early and every year I am running behind. In my defense, this year I did make 4 other Christmas card sets for other people. I mailed out the last two sets on Black Friday (for the moms).

For my Christmas cards I used all papertreyink products. Ink, cardstock, decorative paper and stamps. I even stamped a cute image on the envelopes. The most fun detail of these cards, I think, is the glittered frame. There is glitter all over the house - little bits of sparkle here and there. I have had 2 separate people mention the glitter on my face. Ah, the joys of using superfine glitter.

Daily December Album

I recently just finished this album. It is a December Daily Album. The idea is to have an album ready to go so you can enjoy the holidays. Each day you just spend a few moments taking a photo and journaling about it. I will be printing all my photos at the end of the holidays but journaling daily. I haven't scrapbooked in well over 2 years so this is my way to get back into the swing of things. I have also requested some photo editing software for Christmas so I can delve into digital scrapbooking. I have already found a place to take onlines classes to help me get started on digital scrapbooking. A couple of the classes are free and then there are more advanced ones you can pay for. They are pretty reasonable priced so I may be taking those as well. Just depends on how quickly I can catch on.

**not sure why but my computer keeps rotating pictures when I try posting them to the blog. The first 4 pictures and the last picture were actually rotated the correct way when I uploaded them. Sorry about that - enjoy!

WIN a GYPSY

Check out the gypsyspot to try and win a new gypsy.

Tried posting their cool blinkie but I can't get it to work.

There are so many cool things out there to scrap and make cards and other crafty items with and this is just one of them. There is going to be a giveaway contest for a gypsy. I am posting this blinky in an attempt to win one. Thanks for looking. You can apply to win

here at the gypsy spot

HELP - too many choices

Do you like these decorative papers

Or these papers??


all these yummy vintage type papers - more tradional colors but all coordinating





or go cuter but not tradtional in color scheme

these two coordinate and are cute




but these are pretty cute too and coordinate -

These are just a few of the many choices I have when deciding on my Christmas cards.

Then there are the stamp sets:

snowflakes you can find it here
holiday tree and this one here

and Sentiments:

from holiday tree (above)celebrate the season, joy, love peace, christmas, holiday, noel, happy, etc (same stamp set that has the above tree)

these sentiments? Holiday button Bits sending holiday cheer, merry christmas, merry & bright, love peace joy, warm winter wishes, holly jolly christmas, sweetest holiday wishes, deck the halls, joy to the world and happy holidays (combo of script & type font)

and finally

this one Signature Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays, Christmas blessings, Peace on Earth Goodwill to Men, Merry & Bright, Joy to the world, and Holiday greetings (this is also a combo font - more elegant type combined with handwritten script - very pretty)

Of course I also have a stamp set with Scripture and Christmas wishes Silent Night.

What's a girl to do? How do I choose? Better choose fast as we need to get these cards in the mail soon.

Creativity or CHAOS????

scraps, metallic wrappers, and ribbon ~ OH MY die cuts and tags and paper galore


sneaky peeks of Christmas projects - ps. that gorgeous paper on the top two??? Well I got that from Arte del Carte - provider of high quality paper that Florence Italy is FAMOUS for. Some fabo ladies will be getting something like that for Christmas. Not going to tell you what they are yet!

rub-ons, wire cutters, adhesive, acrylic stamps - What on earth do they have in common?

deco paper, and gadgets galore - do you think I need MORE???? (insert gleeful cackle here)

definitely need a new paper cutter, definitely

Can you guess what I am making? Use your eagle eye and you may just figure it out. Either way I can't decide whether I am just too messy - or just messy enough! Enjoy, my chaos or rather creative mess.

Birthday Invitations & Christmas Cards

During my Craft Your Art Out group I made an invitation kit for a 13 year old girl to finish for her birthday. Her grandmother brought me an example of the layout she liked along with a color scheme. I left the image blank so she could put her own sentiment on them. SHE LOVED THEM! I think they turned out cute too.




Then I made some Christmas cards that I plan on sending to our moms for Thanksgiving this year. I hope they like them. I hope to have some other things to send them also. I need to get the Christmas presents I want to make them started as well. Hopefully soon.