Hope You Had a Wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Turkey Place Cards:
Well the idea WAS to have the 3 grandgobblers (known as grandgoblins for Halloween) assemble all of the 200+ pieces of punched and die-cut cardstock into 12 place cards. It's been a family tradition for the girls to make place cards, usually commercial place cards or something simple I'd come up with, ready for them to write names. When 2 of the grandgobblers needed to come a bit later, our schedule was in disarray!

Daughter, Deb, (I needed to check the turkey, make the gravy happen, and calculate how many casseroles and pans of rolls would fit into our conventional oven when the turkey at last came out) helped Abby to cut, glue, and glue, and glue, the 17 or so pieces for a number of them but Alas! I had to admit that there was too little time for so much fun! We had them for the girls' places and I will pack away the remaining oval scallops, Boho punches,scallop squares, little feet, beaks, combs and little eyes for next year's celebration!

I totally CASEd this great punch idea from Sophia Landry (Thank you, Sophia!!!!), who can be found on Andrea Walford's site! Sophia is a genius at punch creations. I didn't find myself that interested in elaborate creations with punches at first, but now I'm inspired and excited to try my hand at a really cute punch Santa to go with my original Charlie Brown Christmas tree, seen below on the Punch Snowman (Also Sophia's idea!) card! You can watch Sophia on a video at:

http://andreawalford.com/
(You have to give Sophia the coolness of presence award as her young children can be heard in the background "not being perfect". I had to giggle because we can all relate! :-D)
Enjoy all of the leftovers!!

Stamp Night and Brownies!

Friday Stamp Night!

Friday Stamp Night saw us (Music teacher Amy, Julie, an office intern from France, art teacher Cindi, who attended along with her mom, Pat) creating some really fun matchbook gift-card holders. We created one holiday GC holder and one general purpose GC holder! The Snowman was pretty labor-intensive, requiring
putting many of those great punches to good use! I love the Whimsey wheel in Real Red! The ornament punch is soooooo versatile. We used it to create our vase for the Thoughts and Prayers "bouquet"!

YAYY! BROWNIES!!! Not the snack! REAL Brownies!! Here we are at St. Thomas Aquinas making angel tags for their annual gift-giving Christmas tree! We used "If the Halo Fits", a perfect set for such a project! We cut out extra angel gownsin Real Red and Old Olive to give it a little more "pop" and then we used markers, a silver gel pen, and blue glitter (for the wings). We framed the cards in colors to match the gowns and added organza ribbons! The girls and their moms made beautiful tags as a community service project! Thanks to all the moms and their amazing leader (Well, she's my awesome daughter too!), Darla McGinley!

Snow Man Gift Card Holder--Gettin' Punchy!

Here is one of the gift-card holder projects that we'll be working on this coming Friday. I think that I used a total of 9 punches to create our snowball-throwing snowman. My inspiration for the snowman comes from Andrea Walford, a very creative stamper in the great north of Canada. The Charlie Brown-like Christmas tree is my own creation. I think it's pretty easy to tell that I used the large SU snowflake punch for the tree and the snowman's arms.

We'll also create a more general gift-card holder and envelope! If you have the following please bring them along:

Adhesive, Scissors, Signo White Gel Pen

Punches: Round Tab, Ticket Corner, Jumbo Snowflake, Circle Punches: 1 1/4", 1", 3/4", 1/2",Slit Punch, and Crop-a-dile (For buttons, eyes, and mouth)

I'll supply everything else and snacks! Hope to see you this Friday 6-9:30 pm.

Holiday Preparations, Volleyball and Puppies!

What a great holiday season! My friend Cheri and I are preparaing for a craft fair in a few weeks and I am beginning to appreciate how many items will be needed for a respectable showing and a 6-foot table. Though this is new to me as a crafter, I have spent many a wonderful hour perusing craft tables during the holiday season! My absolute FAV is the Melbourne Lutheran Church of the Redeemer Craft Fair. So many beautifully handmade gifts and ornaments! I look forward to it every fall!! Here's what I've been working on so far: Hand-decorated recipe boxes, pocket calendars, ornaments, packages of gift tags, greeting cards and holiday cards, popcorn and candy gift items, gift bags, and Christmas Wreaths.
Using my ornament punch and transparency sheets, I was able to make my own stencil. I used Stampin' Up stamp pads in In-colors and in traditional red and green colors to make a few card sets.
Here we are in craft creations central (In other words, things are getting a little cluttered around here!) where I've been working on my Christmas wreaths. These are in copper and brown-tones.

"Life is Good" is rather a family motto for us (and the brand name of our favorite comfy tee-shirts) so I could not resist this Decor Element (Actually two!) for our dining room, where many a wonderful and lively family dinner has taken place!

I love our Definitely Decorative Baroque Medallions between my "Beach Cottage" and the Dining Room. If I only had more wallspace.........

Volleyball!

How fun it is to go to the girls' volleyball games. Here is Emma, 9, (middle) all set at her rec league match. Emma is a "go for it" girl and has a great bump and serve. Emma is not afraid to put those knee pads to use either!

Here is Abby, 13 ,serving for her middle school team, the Jackson Heights Bobcats JV, county champions last year and undefeated so far this year. Abby has a great serve, bump, and is a great setter! She is fearless, consistent and solid! Abby also plays rec league volleyball! Both girls are fortunate to have terrific coaches!!

As Promised......Puppies!

Yesterday, we visited with our daughter, Darla, her husband Kevin, and daughter Riley! We visited, cooked, carved, and played with Lucy (LuLu) the chocolicious Chocolate Lab, Ollie, their 1 1/2 year old Yorkie, and Daisy, their new Yorkie puppy. The family was also puppy-sitting Daisy's brother, Dewey, and Bongo, Daisy and Dewey's daddy. You can imagine all of the fun!!

TWO-TOO CUTE!!

A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL!!