My Forgetfullness

I forgot to mention two things when I posted earlier....The "Love You Much" bundle is 20% off retail until Jan. 31, which means instead of paying $51.85 it is now $41.48. Also today is the last day on the Country Living promotion. To make it even sweeter, I am offering free shipping on any order of $50.00 or more from now until January 15 but you must contact me to get the free shipping instead of going through the website.

Love You Much

My first SCS challenge! It was for a funky fun fold. You can see a tutorial on Splitcoast as well as all the fun ways it was used. I used the "Love You Much" stamp set which is available for customers to purchase now. You can check out my website... http://stampthenightaway.stampinup.net/ or contact me personally through email at... dixonsandy8aol.com if you are interested in purchasing it. The stamp set is part of a bundle which also includes a punch that punches out 3 different shaped hearts and a pack of designer paper, Candy Lane.

To make the card, I used Rose Red as the base and added panels from the Candy Lane designer paper. The ribbon is the 1 1/4 in pink pirouette grosgrain which is so pretty. The way this folds, you could tuck a little something inside as a gift or use it to hold a gift card.

Crab and Company

This is a card using the retiring set, Crab and Company. This set is very versatile in that it can be used for birthdays, Christmas, scrapbooking beach pages and wherever else your imagination takes you. It will be gone after Jan. 18 so if you want it get it soon.

I used tangerine tango, taken with teal, riding hood red, old olive, and whisper white cardstock and designer paper from the Summer Picnic collection.

 

Happy Heart Day

This cute little elephant is part of a stamp set that is on the dormant list which means it is not included in the current catalog but you can still order it. The item number is 111089 and the price is $20.95. It also has a mouse holding a huge heart, a butterfly that has I love you , a flower with a heart in the middle and a thank you sentiment, as well as a tag and a sentiment that says "to someone with a very big heart".

I used the new Raspberry Tart DP, rose red and pixie pink card stock, Whisper White run through the Big Shot with a Swiss dot embossing folder. The ribbon isn't Stampin' Up but it matches the Raspberry really well. Have a great day and make time to stamp!

Breakfast with Santa

Here is a picture of the girls at a Breakfast with Santa minus Santa. I believe it was a little too early on a Saturday for Shelby.

A Little Somethin'

We made it through Christmas which was a very unpleasant day for the most part. The vomiting subsided around 3:00 pm but the fever and body aches lasted through the night. But we are back up at 4:00 am this morning because Sadie is hungry and wants to see what she got for Christmas, which is a good sign.

I am excited about the new catalog and some of the sets we got to preview. Today's post is from the set, A Little Somethin' , and I used the new designer paper Raspberry Tart.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas. Ours would have been perfect if my girls had not got the flu. Shelby awoke at 3:30 am Wednesday vomiting with fever. She was sick all day Wednesday. This morning at 4:00 am Sadie starting vomiting an has continued all morning. She opened about 3 gifts but hasn't felt like even looking at them. I guess she will wait until she feels better to open to open the rest. The worst part is that there is nothing I can do to make it better.

I will be sharing some photos of my girls over the next few days. This one is of Sadie taken when we were getting ready to go to her choir performance at church. Tomorrow I will share a picture of Shelby.

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 11

For today I want to share some easy punch treats. I made a bunch of these, I made 22 of the snowmen for Sadie's class. They had a Christmas feast which was so much nicer than the typical sugary parties they usually have. I baked a spiral ham and they also had turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, mac an cheese, and rolls. We decorated their table with a blue tablecloth and snowman cups and plates. I put one of the snowman peppermint patties and a Diet Coke can snowflake at each plate. It was very pretty and I was amazed at how low key the children were and how well they ate. We then went back to the classroom and had a book exchange. Very nice party!

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 10

I made something for myself! I saw these bookmarks somewhere recently and just loved them so I made me one. Would be a great gift idea, wish I had found them earlier because they are so easy. Next year for sure.

I used the designer label punch and hodgepodge hardware.

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 9

I don't know about you but I am finished with Christmas cards although I do have a few gifts left to buy as well as a lot of wrapping to do. I am afraid I have done it again this year, I really bought too much for my younger kids. Their grandparents came from Alabama yesterday and had Christmas with them, they usually take them to their motel and do gifts, take them out to dinner, and then let hem spend the night at the motel with them. This year however Shelby has strep throat and wasn't feeling well yesterday so they brought them home around 9:00 pm. so I had a little less time to get some things crossed off my "to do" list than I'd planned on.

Today, I thought I would share a thank you card, I have started working on those to send out after Christmas. Sometimes I combine my thank you with a Happy New Year card and I will share those with you over the next few days.

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 8

Todays post would make a good teachers gift. It is a calendar and cork board for a desk. I made it by attaching three coasters together with ribbon. The middle section would be a good place to put a photo or a post-it notepad.

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 7

For today I want to show you my snowflakes I cut with the Big Shot. I used Diet Coke cans which I cut apart and flattened. I just love how they turned out. I also cut some out of white vinyl for my windows. See you tommorrow, the kids were out of school today because of ice and they are at this moment bickering and I am sure the fight will begin any moment.

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 6

I found this cute snowman stamp at Hobby Lobby.

This is our Gingerbread House, I will post pictures of the girls making it later. Good thing I took pictures as soon as we finished it because it has very few pieces of candy left on it and now they are eating the gingerbread!

I can't believe how fast time is flying by, it is almost Christmas and I still have shopping, baking, mailing, school functions to prepare for and attend, and about a hundred other things to accomplish before the big day. I haven't scheduled any more Stamping workshops until after Christmas, I did my last one this past weekend. I went to a craft show and took a few things. I did ok but I can sure tell the economy is getting bad and people are sure spending far less this year. I know that is not what is Christmas is suposed to be about, but you can almost sense a fear among people as they talk about what might lie ahead for our country and our economy. We really need to pray that our leaders will rely on God for guidance in their decision making.

Today I wanted to show you several photos. One is of some snowman soups I made for the craft fair. I saw one like the carrot shaped one in a local gift shop priced for $6.50 and thought I can make one prettier and cheaper. These sold the best at the craft show. I used the disposable icing bags you use to decorate cakes with and the coccoa and marshmallows are packaged inside to keep them fresh and make everything stay in place.

Snowy Day

It snowed today! We didn't get much white stuff but it sure got the kids excited. They really like to play in the snow, last year we got to build at last two snowmen plus we went skiing for the first time. I didn't put skis on since I had a broken arm but it was still fun to watch Toy and the girls. Sadie who was four at the time was a natural and went down a fairly big slope by herself without any problem. Shelby on the other hand had decided before we got there that she was going to fall a lot and she did. We are going again in Feb. but I don't think I will try it, I'm just not very athletic.

Today's post is easy peasy, a snowflake cut on the Cricut with dazzling diamonds , the background is a Cuttlebug embossed image of snowflakes, the blue snowflake is a Martha Stewart punch, and the greeting is punched with the SU designer label punch which has rub-ons on it also from SU. Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Traditions

I can't believe I haven't posted anything in nearly a week. All I can say is that life has been moving at a rapid pace and time is something I have had little of. I don't have any photos uploaded so I won't be sharing a project today but I did want to ask you about your Christmas traditions. You can e-mail me instead of leaving them in the comment section if you want since the comment section can be rather difficult at times. We have several traditions a our list seems to be growing with our little girls, they can't get enough it seems. Every year we go to West Frankfort and visit Candy Cane Lane, this is a section of town in which every house is highly decorated and they usually have elves and Santa to guide you and give out candy canes. Yesterday we built our traditional Gingerbread house, aren't those kits nice, we didn't have those with my first kids and I had to bake my own gingerbread. We also celebrate Advent with an advent tree , reading of the Bible, lighting of the candles, and small inexpensive gifts each night starting 12 days before Christmas. I add a new ornament to the tree for each child every year, I really enjoy shopping for these, I try to choose one that kind of reflects and interest at that time or something to do with some job or sport they are each involved in. Then we have a special night where I will fix a bunch of snacks and bring out the ornaments and explain why I choose them and let the kids hang them. Something else I started with my older kids since I had one who used to sneak and open his presents under the tree and then rewrap them was to use secret code on the labels on the packages. They have so much fun trying to decipher the code and it is different each year so they rarely can figure it out. I would really like to hear about your traditions

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 4

Hope your day hasn't been as busy as mine. I am tired after 8 loads of laundry (and still at least 4 more to go), taking Shelby to school, going to get the oil changed in my car, washing the outside an vacuuming the inside of my car, fixing lunch, taking Sadie to pre-K, came home and got two packages ready to mail, drop packages off at post office, back to both schools to get both girls, rush home and fix them a snack and off to dance class for Shelby, come home and fix dinner, get Sadie ready for dance, take Sadie to dance and pick up Shelby, get Shelby in bath, wash an style her hair and get her ready for program at school, pick Sadie up at dance, back home to get Toy and Sadie and go to Shelby's program, home to get Shelby's homework and study for test, get girls ready for bed, all this and not a minute to stamp today. Just not fair.

I chose something easy for today, a Christmas card. I am still making cards and haven't sent any yet. Today's card features the Snow Swirled tree. I stamped it in Versamark and then embossed in silver and added pearls. The base of the card has patterned paper cut in three pieces and mounted on Baja Breeze. I think this card has an elegant look and really like how it turned out.

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 3

Good Monday morning. Hope your weekend was good. Today I am posting a project I cased from Andrea Walford. It is a treat holder using the Winter Post from Stampin' Up, I think this is my favorite set right now. Started by cutting 3 Top Notes, 2 in red and one in Very Vanilla. I stamped the skaters on the card stock and then again on a post-it note which I cut out and placed over the skaters to make a mask. Next I stamped the trees from the set Lovely as a Tree. Next I used the word slit punch to punch all three top notes close to the top and then scored the Very Vanilla one a little below the punch. The Very Vanilla top note is then trimmed all the way around and a sentiment is stamped on one of the red ones. Next take a small bag and cut it down to fit on the other top note just below the punched section and using sticky red tape adhere it. Next put tape on the other side of the bag and holding the the other two top notes together and lined up with the first one, adhere the red one to the bag. Then cut a piece of ribbon and tie all three together. You will be able to raise the very vanilla top note to see the sentiment.

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 2

I teach a Sunday School class of 2-3 year olds and I love teaching them especially at this time of the year. They have such excitement and anticipation of all that this season holds yet when I asked them today what "Christmas" was I got answers like "Jesus" and "Baby Jesus". It has made me stop and realize that I need to put more emphasis on the things that really count instead of making a big fuss over the perfect tree or getting everything bought on every ones wish list.

For today I am posting a very simple flip Scrapbook. I made it using half of the Simply Scrappin' Scrapbook kit from Satmpin' Up. I did attempt to show picture of the inside but they just didn't tun out so this is just the cover . It unfolds like a trifold and has pages coming off each side in graduated sizes. It is hard to describe but is cute in real life.

Twelve Days of Christmas

I love everything about Christmas, the music, the smells, the taste, the colors, the hustle and bustle, and best of all the giving spirit at this time of year and I don't mean just material things. After all , the greatest gift ever given was Jesus. I encourage everyone who celebrates that first gift to give a gift of time to someone this Christmas Season, you will be glad you did!

Now, let me tell you about a gift I got yesterday from my dear friend Sharon. She brought me the cutest fridge magnet with my first 2009 calendar on it as well as a monogrammed notebook. She made 20 calendars for friends (here is an example of time being given as part of a gift--I really appreciate the time she spent making these). I chose one with blue in it since my kitchen is blue. Thanks Sharon. Here is a picture {I struggle with photography as you can tell}.

Now, on to the project for today. I buy a lot of gift cards for Christmas gifts and I want to share a gift card holder today. I used the Top Note die and the Big Shot for this project. I cut a piece of Real Red card stock to 4 3/4 by 8 1/2 and scored and folded the 8 1/2 side at 4 1/4. I placed the fold just below the cutting edge and cut. This gave me the card part. Next I cut a white top note and cut the top portion and the bottom portion off. I used one of these pieces on the inside to form the pocket to hold the gift card, and the middle section was glued on the front as an accent.

The snowflakes are rub ons from the Word Flurries set.

Spread the Snow - Popular Front: SnowDays

Spread the Snow - Popular Front: SnowDays

Check out this website where you can make your snowflake!

Season of Simple Grace

Sorry for lack of posts over last few days, I have been busy, busy, busy getting ready for my 12 days of Christmas postings which will start Saturday. I am very excited about this and have lots to show you. For todays post I chose a card cased from the Holiday mini featuring the stamp set Season of Simple Grace. I love this set and this card has so many layers and the design is a little different as well. The colors are Baja Breeze. Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, and Old Olive.

Wishing for White Christmas

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I certainly did. Just having family around me makes for a good time. Today's post is a card using a cuttlebug embossing folder and my favorite color combination bliss blue, chocolate chip, and close to cocoa. It's a little hard to see but the embossing is of a snowy village with smoke plumes coming from the houses. I grew up in the mountains of Kentucky and I remember lots of snow for Christmas, I get homesick just thinking about it.

Happy Thankgiving

My turkey is in the oven, pecan pies are cooling, dressing is ready to go in oven, potatoes are peeled, Macy's Parade is on in living room, Toy is in his recliner, Shelby and Sadie are fussing over toys, Heather and Chad are sleeping in, Seth & Danielle will be here at noon....Hmmmm, What else was I going to do? Oh yeah, I wanted to first of all thank God for the abundance of blessings in my life which includes each of you.

Today's card is from the Stampin' Up set Happy Blessings. Again, another not so photo but the sentiment says, "happy thanksgiving, happy fall, happy blessings, one and all" . Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Snow Swirled

Today's post is another one of the cards we did this past weekend at my Christmas stamp a stack. I used the Snow Swirled stamp set which I love. It is embossed in silver and the snowflake tag was made using the faux metal technique. I used the small oval to punch on the front of the card which allows the sentiment on the inside to show through. It didn't photograph very well but says Season's Greetings. The card base is Bravo Burgundy.

Make sure you check out my website tomorrow for drastic savings on bundles from Stampin Up. I don't know what they are yet myself but they have promised 20-50% savings. In addition to this anyone purchasing at last $50.00 either online or by calling me from now until Dec 1 will receive a gift from me. My web address is http://stampthenightaway.stampinup.net/ .

I really like this stamp set, "Winter Post" especially the deer. This is one of the tags we will be making at my upcoming stamp camp. I used Close to Cocoa paper to cut the top note and stamped the images in Chocolate Chip. The large eyelet and the rope twine are also from Stampin Up. This stamp set is from Shelli's Signature Collection.

Don't forget to check my website--http://stampthenightaway.stampinup.net/ for the big announcement from Stampin'Up tomorrow. Should be stamping bundles drastically reduced.

Snowflake treat holder

How is your Friday going, I woke up early and it was soooo cold. Today I am sharing another Big Shot project, I just love the Top Note Die. This is a little treat or trinket box. It is made just like the Frosty one I posted earlier except the diecut is turned in different direction. The "peace" is also a diecut, I just cut the part I wanted from the Join in the Cheer decorative strip which is a Stampin' Up exclusive die from Sizzix. Thanks for stopping by!

I wanted to share a card with you today that will be part of my Christmas Card Stamp a Stack this Saturday, Nov. 22. I have so far 5 cards to choose from and will share the others next week. I also wanted to mention that Stampin' Up will be revealing their Holiday Kick Off next week and as soon as they let us know what it is, I will post it here. This card today uses a set of stamps from last year called "Its Snow Time" which is retired but still one of my favorites. The papers and inks are Real Red, Old Olive, Chocolate chip, and designer paper Ski Slope(available in Holiday mini).

Watch for my Twelve Days of Christmas starting soon where I will feature treat holders, cards, 3 dimensionals, and much more. I will be making the recipes available as well.

Today's post would be a great Christmas gift or even a nice way to say "thank you" to someone at Thanksgiving. It is a Pizza box that holds four 4x4 Thank you cards. Two of these are shown here. I used Bella paper and Bella Blossoms stamp set with Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red and Old Olive papers and ink. Also don't forget My Christmas Card Stamp a Stack om Nov. 22.

Baby Frosty

Hope your Sunday has been good and restful. Today I am sharing another Frosty, a Frosty baby. Isn't he cute! I made him using the curly label punch from Stampin' Up on page 189 of the Stampin' Up catalog(if you don't have a catalog contact me an I will get one to you). I punched a white label and a black one, cut the black one and half and used it for his hat. For the brim of his hat I used the word window punch. His eyes and mouth are the smallest punch on the cropadile and his nose is a point from the small star punch.

The snowflake on his hat is the only non stampin' up punch used to make him. Sorry the photo is so bad but it rained most of the day yesterday and I tried taking pictures inside which makes for blurry ones with shadows.

Treat Holder

Sorry for no post yesterday, I have had the worst headache I think I have ever had. It is some better today so maybe I can play catchup on my to do list. Today's post is a treat holder using pink pirouette card stock and Bella designer paper with a little chocolate chip. It will hold a miniature can bar which fits in the slot and the bag stands up. I plan on making these for my daughter's classmates for Christmas. Also, we will make these at an upcoming stamp camp.

Prayer

We are studying the Lord's Prayer, our model prayer, at church on Wednesday nights. I am learning so much about how I should pray and how God expects us to pray. So, I thought I would post this card today. It doesn't use Stampin' Up stamps but I did use Stampin' Up papers. The sentiment is a little hard to read but it says, "We are praying for you". I think we should really pray for each other and let others know we are praying for them. I know when I am experiencing some difficulty it helps to know someone is praying for me.

Giving Thanks

I am thankful for so many things but I am sorry to say that I think about it more at this time of the year than I do all year long. I need to take time each day to say "thank you" to someone who has blessed my life but I am afrad I don't always do that. Today's post is a Thank You card and it is addressed to everyone I know.

Sorry for the poor quality picture.

I decided to show you another view so that you can see the box part of Frosty.

Frosty treat box holder

Isn't Frosty cute! He is made the same way as the Frankie treat boxes that were everywhere around Halloween. No stamping involved in this one, just punches and dies. I used the Stampin Up exclusive die, Top Note, and the birds and blooms die for his hat decoration. His nose is one of the points fom our star punch and his eyes are made from the sizzix button die. His mouth is the largest hole on the cropadile. Let me know what you think.

Season of Simple Grace

Today's card is another Top Note card which features my favorite Christmas set in the Holiday Mini, Season of Simple Grace. The image is stamped in Chocolate Chip onto Very Vanilla cardstock. Behind the top note is Pattern Designer Paper in Riding Hood Red. I also used brown felt ribbon from the Alpine collection fetured on page 23 of the Holiday Mini along with a piece of hemp. The card base is Kiwi Kiss cardsock. Leave a comment if you like this card. I will probably do this one at my Christmas Stamp a Stack if it is well received.

Sorry for the blurred photo.

Top Note

I love the Top Note die from Sizzix and Stampin' Up. This card is one we made at my Holiday Open House a few weeks ago. I used the winter scene from the set A Tree for all Seasons and used watercolor pencils to color in the snowman's scarf and the mittens. The outlining with the white gel pen adds a little pizzaz to the card which was suggested by my friend Sharon. Other details include chocolate chip base, real red top note and whisper white ribbon.

First Post

I can't believe I finally got brave to enough to start my own blog! I follow so many blogs it was just a matter of time until I decided to do one for myself. I am a Stampin Up demonstrator, long time scrapbooker, married to a wonderful man for 34 years, Mom to 5 children and a soon to be "Grandma". My kids are a little spread out in age: 32,28,25,10, and 5. I retired from a career as a Medical Laboratory Technologist a few years ago so I could be home with my younger two after realizing how much I missed out on by having a job with such a demanding schedule with my first three. Thanks to God and his provisions as well as learning to be more thrifty, we have adjusted to giving up my income and hardly miss it.