Christmas Ornaments

Every year I have made ornaments for Christmas Eve and day services. The first year I intended them to be for the children but didn't really know how many to make. So, had lots of extras and gave one to each household. Everyone loved them so much that I made the same number the next year. I make about 90 of them. Each child gets one during the children's lesson and then other households get one as they exit.
Usually I know what I'm doing and have them done by November but wound up doing them the weekend before Christmas this year. I found the idea on Pinterest and then modified it a bit acoording to my husband's wishes. I am so glad I have the Big Shot rosette die cut! And that I don't throw anything out. Because once I realized I needed 12 inch paper it was too late to order it in time to make them. But I found some 12 x 12 heavy paper that had come in a scrapbook. It was so much easy to fold than card stock, too.


And those are just the paper craft projects I've been working on the last two weeks. I also made a quillow (small quilt that folds into a pillow) for the newest baby in the family, a scarf for sisters scarf challenge (sister Carol saw a scarf made with yarn and ribbon and challenge us each to make one and bring to Christmas gathering) and did some holiday baking. So, yes, I'd say my energy has improved and I'm feeling better! Thanks be to God and all the prayers being said on my behalf.

The quillow:  unfinished top and the completed item.

 The challenge scarf. It will be fun to see what the other scarves look like.

Sunday School Ornaments

Our Sunday School Superintendent asked me to make ornaments for each of the 44 children. She had a sample ornament that her adult daughter had received from the church years ago. So, I just pulled a stamp (Holy Triptych - retired) that was very similar to the one used by previous stamper and copied the layout. The previous stamper had used a metallic pen to "paint" the edges of the stamped image. I decided to use glimmer paper. The only problem with that is getting the top layer of card stock to stick. I wound up using Tombow Liquid Glue and putting something heavy on top until the glue was mostly dry.
The sentiment on the back of the ornament is from God's Blessings (also retired).

Another Christmas Card

These are the cards I made for the parishoner mailboxes at our churches. I make post card type cards and just place them in the mailbox. Saves on envelopes. This is such a pretty nativity scene from last year's Holiday catalog. I actually ordered it after Christmas last year. Most years I have my cards designed and done before the Holiday catalog is out. While I had this year's designed and some things cut I didn't get them done until December.

Christmas Cards

I promised back in September to show you my Christmas cards for this year but then other things got in the way.

Better late than never... here are the cards I made to mail to family and friends.

   I used the same layout and stamps for each card but I had lots of retired Designer Series Paper I wanted to use. So I varied the color and accessories to match the card. It was a lot of fun to switch it up when making so many cards. We send about 180. That's what happens when you live in a lot of different communities during your life; it's great having so many friends! Each one is a blessing and then we have many family members, too. We are blessed!

November's Paper Pumpkin

The top card is from the November Paper Pumpkin.It is one of two card designs in the package.

I started getting the monthly Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin's in April of last year. I didn't think I would enjoy them so much. I only subscribed when I did because of a special the company ordered and it would count as a Sale-A-Bration order. (Sale-A-Bration starts again, soon!) Anyhow, there are always a few extras in the kits of some things. And of course I can't throw them away. There was an extra pre-cut holly leaf and a few red pearls left, too. So, I used some of the scraps from the punched out holly leaves as a stencil and inked a sponge dauber up with Old Olive to make two of the leaves in the bottom card. Then added the left over pre-cut holly leave. I like the way it turned out.

Since I already had lots of Christmas cards made I decided to use the Paper Pumpkin cards as holiday thank you notes. It's been a great incentive to write the notes as gifts are received since they have a Christmas look and sentiment. And we are blessed with lots of Christmas goodies/gifts from the parishoners at this time of year. Such generous people!

A few more thoughts on Paper Pumpkin. There are lots of bloggers who take the supplies and make alternate items with them. So, even on the few months when I haven't had a need for the projects as outlined I have found other things to make and use.  And it is fun to get that little box each month and see what is inside!

Little Box of Candy

I made this little gift box to include in the package I sent off to my daughter, who can't make it to our home for Christmas. (So sad! But that is the way it goes when one has a career and live so far apart.)
I CASED from Linda Heller's stamping school. (Yes, giving myself another birthday gift subscription. She's always got great ideas.)
Anyhow, Linda's box was made to hold gift tags and strands of ribbon for the tags. But she mentioned that Ghirardelli squares and Hershey's nuggest would fit in the same box. A window sheet makes the see-through lid. It was a bit hard to score and fold but used Linda's tip to score from both sides and that made it a bit easier. The snowflake charm and Designer Series paper was from last year's Holiday catalog. These would make great hostess gifts, too.

Coaster calendar

Then I made 8 of these calendars. They weren't all made with the same Designer Series Paper. I tried to choose paper that I thought the recipient would like. I made 3 for friends, 1 for a hostess gift, and 3 for family Christmas gifts and one for myself. I think I'll be making one more as part of a wedding gift for an early January wedding. The bride and groom came for a pre-marriage counseling session with my husband while I was in the midst of making them and oohed and aahed over them.

Originally I made these with chipboard coasters. But now I use the heavy white sheet that comes in the DSP packs for the covers; just cut them to 4 inch squares and cover front and back with DSP. Then I use card stock in colors that coordinate with the DSP for the twelve months. I make my own calendar using MS Word each year.
This year I used the retired Every Little Bit stamp set for each stamped image each month. Snowflake, heart, shamrock, umbrella, flower, sunshine, star, bee, school bus, bat, pie and Christmas stocking are all in that set. There are lots of other little images in the set. It's a set I have used a lot!

It's been a while... but I'm back!

My fall didn't go as I had planned...  but things seem to have gotten better and I've had the energy to spend time in my craft studio. Oh, I was getting some time in there all during my absence, but mostly just trying to keep up with daily needs and didn't have the energy to blog.

But I've been making up for lost time in the last two weeks. I started out by making 2 of these CD case calendars.

Every year I make new pages for my daughter and husband's CD case calendars. The pages fit in a CD case that has been taken apart and put back together in such a way as to make an easel-type holder.