Red & White Christmas Cards

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Inch By Inch; Pile By Pile
I confess, I have been overwhelmed by piles of paper, stacks of supplies, and an out of the ordinary number of thoughts telling me I have become a slob!  I guess I have a few ways to deal with it.  One is to listen to those slobby thoughts and just leave well enough alone and keep adding to the stacks and piles.  But no, that doesn't seem like it will put me in a place that is supportive and peaceful!  So I'm choosing another route...even if I take is slowly...inch by inch.  I'm going to dive into those piles and stacks and send those slobby thoughts on vacation :)  Yup, inch by inch, pile by pile...that's how I'm going to close out my year!!!!!
Today I wanted to share two quick Christmas cards with you.  The first was made by stamping flowers from the Mixed Bunch stamp set in Real Red on Whisper White card stock.  I chose a retired sentiment since I really liked the modern font, but you can use whatever sentiment stamp you'd like!  For the second card I decided to take the Lovely As A Tree tree image and take out the silver embossing powder and Cherry Cobbler dazzling details.  The sentiment was stamped with Whisper White craft ink and an alphabet set.  The snowflake-like image is from Pennant Parade.  And, if you are unfamiliar with Spanish - the greeting says Merry Christmas :)  Wishing you a wonderful weekend filled with light, love and laughter!  I'll be working on my inches and piles :)

Lovely As A Tree Brayered Background Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Journal Through It!
I have been doing my best to keep a journaling commitment to myself.  Three handwritten pages every morning.  Just stream of consciousness writing - sometimes I just write "I really don't have anything to write right now" and go from there.  The practice first was introduced to me by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist's Way.  I used to begin my day by waking up and immediately checking email/news and then going for a walk with Buddy.  I found that on my walks I would often feel unsettled.  Now, by making journaling my priority (and getting up a little earlier), I find that I am able to journal through my thoughts and moods and really relax into my morning walk.  A cup of tea is a nice accompaniment to the journaling - and watching the day go from dark to light also sets a wonderful mood.  I find that the 3 pages take me 30 minutes.  It is a very worthwhile investment for me.  I share the practice because maybe you would find it helpful too.  If it peaks your interest, give it a try and see what you can journal through :)
Today's card was a part of my holiday stamping workshop.  It began with a piece of Wild Wasabi card stock that was run through the Big Shot with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.  I then inked up a brayer with Chocolate Chip ink and lightly rolled it, in every direction, over the embossed areas.  You can add more or less ink depending on the look you are going for.  I also find this works better than trying to sponge the raised areas - much more efficient :)  The tree is from Lovely As A Tree and was stamped with Versamark and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  I used rhinestones and Cherry Cobbler dazzling details to decorate the tree.  The sentiment is from Petite Pairs and I used the pinecone image from Lovely As A Tree to accent the edges of the punched sentiment.  I also sponged the edges of the sentiment with Chocolate Chip ink.  I hope you like it!!!!!  (I also want to send a special thank you and huge hug of appreciation to Doris, Helen, Peggy, Sharri and Lorraine!  I appreciate you so much and am so grateful to have come to know you through this wonderful virtual world!!!!!!  Thank you for all of your wonderful comments, emails and support!  You are incredibly creative spirits and I am honored to know you!!!!!  You amaze me!!!!!!!)

Out On A Whim Wednesday: Wine Dreidel :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Why Put Your Gift Of Wine In A Bag When You Can Decorate It?????
We were invited over to a friend's house for a Chanukah celebration with potato pancakes (called latkes) and we decided to bring a bottle of wine with us.  Of course, I could not resist the urge to make a statement with the decoration of the wine bottle and I decided to turn it into a dreidel - the spinning top toy that is played with during the holiday of Chanukah.  I used a toilet paper roll for the top and covered it with foam and a bit of silver piping.  I then cut out a chipboard template and used the template to cut different colors of blue and white foam.  I even cut Hebrew letters from black foam.  I added some silver piping to the top edges to try to cover some of the glue (I used a quick drying glue that worked pretty well on the foam...If I had a bit more time I might have been a bit neater ;)  Finally, I tied a piece of silvery ribbon to the top of the top :)  The cool thing?  You can actually spin this dreidel while it covers the wine bottle!  I wish I could take credit for it being a working dreidel, but it actually was a happy accident :)  Why put your gift in a wine bag when you can decorate it???? :)  How can you decorate your wine bottles for the holidays?  I'm thinking a tree, Santa, a nutcracker or a reindeer would be absolutely adorable!!!!!

I'll be back soon!

I had a Handmade Gifts workshop in my home last night and was busy, busy, busy!  I will try to get a post up later today...but if not, you can expect I'll be back on Wednesday!!!!  Hope you are having a wonderful week!!!!!

Four Seasons Merry Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Learning is not a spectator sport.  -Anonymous
Today's quote makes me smile.  I can find myself watching videos on-line and looking at blogs...for many minutes (okay...sometimes maybe even an hour or two).  It's a pretty passive sport - sitting there and watching or reading.  It is not until I venture into the craft room and actually start to "do" that the learning really begins.  Sometimes I discover that a technique that looked so easy in that darn video is really a lot more complex when you try to do it yourself.  Or I might have been inspired by a stuffed toy and decide to try to make one myself...only to realize that my sewing could use a lot of help and that I don't know the first thing about how to stuff tight corners on soft toys!  It's easy to sit back and observe others creating and think - oh yeah - no problem - I could do something like that.  It's a lot harder to actually challenge yourself to give it a try.  That is where the true learning is.  It is also where additional inspiration will find you :)  No, learning is not a spectator sport....so stop reading this and go make something!!!!!! :)
Today's card was made using the Four Seasons stamp set and the sentiment is from a retired SU! background stamp that I cut into small pieces so that I could use the individual words :)  I used a Marina Mist marker to ink up the snowflake portion of the stamp and stamped that onto Marina Mist card stock.  Then I used different markers to ink up the bird and the snow and branch details and stamped that onto Very Vanilla card stock and punched it out.  Dazzling Details was added for some glitter :)  I sponged the edges of the Marina Mist piece after punching it out with a 2 3/8" scallop circle punch.  Snowflakes were stamped onto the Natural Ivory card base using Crumb Cake ink.  A piece of Riding Hood Red seam binding was knotted around the card before the stamped pieces were added with dimensionals.  I hope you like it!  Here is a close up :)  Now really...stop reading this and go make something!!!!