Merry Christmas!

Have a Very Merry Christmas and God Bless!

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Preschool Shopping Day

I learned a valuable lesson from my sister . . . watch what you volunteer for at your child's school!

My full-time working sister has two boys. I've watched her volunteer for everything and be totally frazzled and stressed out because of it. She is also a little bit of a procrastinator which doesn't help these situations she gets herself into. The night before whatever event she volunteered for, she's running all over town buying stuff, or staying up until 1 am making something. God love her! She is a great mom!

I volunteered to make items for Brandon's preschool "Christmas Shopping Day". I thought it would be quite an easy task for me! I was hoping to make pretty things for kids to give their mom's, but when I got the call, they asked me to make something for dad's. I was totally bummed, stressed, and clueless as to what to make. I came up with the idea to alter these plain memo pads from the Dollar Store. I had some masculine looking patterned paper and embellishments in my stash to decorate them with. I hope they liked them.

One of my creative challenges (we'll call it), is making masculine themed cards or gifts. I was regretting signing up to make items for the shop when I was given my assignment, but I think it turned out ok. I also got to use up some supplies I've been meaning to do something with. It worked out!

How are you doing on your Christmas shopping? I am almost there. After Brandon told Santa this past weekend what he wanted, I realized I need one more thing. Thankfully, Brandon is a simple kid who likes simple things. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Have fun getting ready for the holidays! I'll be back soon!

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Glistening Your Holiday Cards

We had our first snowfall of the season this past weekend. Guess who was the first one out there rolling around in it? Not me! Brandon will turn four years old this weekend and he loves the snow as you can tell from the picture.

When the sun came out Sunday afternoon the snow was glistening. It was the perfect inspiration for making a holiday card using the new Shimmer Paints from the Stampin' Up! holiday mini. I used Frost White on this card. I added a little paint on a sponge and then gently rubbed it over my embossed image and sentiment. I even put a little over the flower and leaves.

I must warn you, the Stampin' Up! Shimmer Paint comes in a very small bottle. When you order it from me, you'll think you've been ripped off. That's what I thought when I received my bottle. Rest assured, a little goes a really long way. I'm not exaggerating!

Don't forget, everything from the Stampin' Up! holiday mini can be ordered through January 4th. This includes all three colors of Shimmer Paint. After that, it's history!

Stampin' Up! is really coming up with some fabulous new products for 2010!!!! We're talking clear stamps and a new punch design. Stay tuned for some sneak peeks!

TO ORDER STAMPIN' UP! PRODUCTS ON-LINE 24/7, CLICK HERE!

Recipe (all supplies from Stampin' Up!):

Stamps: Christ is Born

Ink: Garden Green, White Pen

Card Stock: Whisper White, Real Red, Garden Green

Designer Series Paper: Christmas Cocoa

Accessories: Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon, Frost White Shimmer Paint, Button Latte, Pretties Kit

Tools: Circle Scissor Plus, 5 Petal Flower Punch, Petals-A-Plenty Impressions Folder, Little Leaves Sizzlits Die

Recycle Your Christmas Cards

I've been saving for the past couple years my favorite Christmas cards I receive over the holidays in hopes to do something with them. I've seen ideas for making ornaments out of them, but that appears to be a little time consuming. I came up with the idea of recycling my Christmas cards into Christmas cards once again! All you need is an array of Stampin' Up! card stock, Big Shot & dies, and a little creativity. I've been whipping out a bunch of these!

This Santa card on the right was a card front that sparkled from the subtle addition of glitter on it. I used the Stampin' Up! Scallop Circle Bigz Die to cut it out the main image of the card and layered it on some shimmery Christmas scrapbook paper. I attached it to Real Red card stock to make a 5x5 card. This card took me minutes to create!

The card to the left was created using the Stampin' Up! Top Note Bigz Die. I couldn't resist the little snowman & glittery snowflakes on this Christmas card I received last year. I attached the metal sentiment under the snowman and tied Bashful Blue ribbon around the Top Note die cut. The Brushed Silver card stock was the perfect card base for this recycled Christmas card.

I had a Christmas card with this snowflake piece mounted on pop dots. I carefully pealed it off the card and reapplied new pop dots and used it on this card! Since the snowflake is silver, I used a little Stampin' Up! Brushed Silver card stock as one of my layers to pull it all together.

I have truly enjoyed this little project I made up and find it to be a fun challenge! I made these cards last weekend and made four more today.

I hope I've inspired you to save those holiday cards this year so that next year you can make these too! It's good for the environment to recycle, cheaper than buying cards, and fun to see where your creativity will take you.

Have fun creating!

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Pink for Christmas?

If you have been a follower of my blog, you know I make a pink Christmas card every year. My card last year was a hit. Click HERE to see it! So this year I still used Stampin Up Pretty in Pink and Whisper White, but added a little Bravo Burgundy. I embossed the front of the card with a snowflake embossing folder and then colored the stamp "Merry Christmas" using My SU! markers so I could use two colors on one stamp.

What do you think of the big snowflake? I just love it. It's called the Jumbo Snowflake Punch from Stampin Up of course. This will definitely be used not only at Christmas time, but on winter birthday cards and scrapbook pages. There is also a coordinating stamp called Simple Snowflake. It's one of those single stamps you can buy pretty inexpensively!

How is your holiday crafting coming along? I would love to say I'm done, but I'm not even close. I recently worked on a really fun idea I'm going to share with you this weekend. I still need to take the pictures. I'm so behind!

Have fun creating for the holidays and be sure to stop back this weekend!


TO ORDER STAMPIN' UP! PRODUCTS ON-LINE 24/7, CLICK HERE!

Recipe (all supplies from Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: All Holidays(#114916)
Ink: Pretty In Pink, Bravo Burgundy
Card Stock: Pretty in Pink, Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White
Accessories: Pink Rhinestone
Tools: Jumbo Snowflake Punch (#116628), embossing folder