Clay Play Day!

I've been such a lazy blogger lately - things have been so busy around here, plus David is off work for the rest of the year, so when he's not over helping his parents with their building, we are enjoying having him around! We are having a movie day today with friends, we went swimming yesterday, shopping and a quick family outing the day before, plus all the goodies and gifts we are trying to make every day, there are just not enough days until Christmas! I still have lots to share, plus my blog candy winner to pick - I will get around to it! I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season!

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A couple weeks ago I pulled out the Sculpey clay from my craft stash and the girls had fun playing! Remember the angel ornaments I posted HERE last year? The girls wanted to make some of those and then they found my clay molds and really went crazy with those! Here are some of their creations...

Brianna made an angel for her teacher plus a few mini figures for her friends

Brailee made an angel (with help from Mommy and Brianna) for her friend Kadie

Kaylee made an angel (blowing on a trumpet) for a teacher at school who had a tree up - only handmade ornaments were allowed so Kaylee was excited to give her this one

I was really impressed with how well the girls did with the molds, especially with multiple colors! Here are some of the mini figures Kaylee created - we turned them into tacks and created a tack board for her teacher. BTW - I have a pack of these cork tiles in my sCRAP stash - I bought them years ago for some project, so now I'm looking for fun ideas to use them up! They are 12x12...any ideas?

Thanks for looking!

Sweet!

Check it out - I was a winner over at Practical Scrappers for this week's challenge!

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Oh, and I didn't forget, I've just been super busy, but I will be posting my blog candy winner soon - thanks to everyone who entered, I enjoyed reading about your holiday traditions!

Emporium Card Set

I was asked to donate something for a teacher auction that they are having at my girls' school this week, so I decided to do a fun card set. I have always wanted to try one of the card workshops that are in the Wishes book - this was the perfect chance! I used the Just Because workshop starting on page 68, which creates 20 cards, but since I didn't have enough time to do all of them {since I put this project off until the morning it was needed ;-P } I just did the first 8. I was trying to get 10 done but ran out of time, and it's a good thing because I could barely get 8 cards and envelopes in the pouch. Here is the complete set - using the Emporium paper, a favorite of mine!

Speaking of the pouch, I created that from a 6x6 page protector, I just cut off the edge with the holes and added a fun flap that closes with velcro.

I used a mix of stamp sets, with some sneak peeks at some upcoming SOTM sets, so here are the individual cards and coordinating envelopes...

...I'll show you my favorite first - this one uses the upcoming January SOTM - True Friends, along with a heart from the Dazzling Die-Cuts, and I changed some gold brads by heating them and dipping them in Cocoa Embossing Powder

...this one uses the Felicity stamp set

...this one uses the upcoming March SOTM - A Little Everything

...this one uses the Felicity stamp set and a Dazzling Die-Cut tag

...this one uses the upcoming February SOTM - Piece of Cake

...this one uses the Felicity stamp set and another Dazzling Die Cut for the letter 'U'

...this one uses the Happy Birthday stamp set and another heart Dazzling Die-Cut for the card and February SOTM - Piece of Cake for the envelope

...this one uses the upcoming April SOTM - Flower Pot


Thanks for looking!

Paper Ornaments

I LOVE making paper ornaments - I'm always looking for new ideas and I always enjoy making old favorites! Remember these ones that I posted last year (just click on the link to view - most have links to instructions):

*Paper Wreaths

*3D Circle Ornaments and Boxes

*German Stars

Well, I've made a few more of these this year but also added some new ones to my Christmas Ornament creations! I haven't added the finishing touches yet like ribbon and string, but I wanted to share them before I forgot - here are some that I've made recently...

Thanks to Amy for posting a new (to me) tutorial for more paper wreaths - I found this Tuesday and couldn't wait to try it, I created my first one while I waited to pick my girls up from school that day. I like these ones because they will be a lot easier for my girls to create with me - the other ones are a little more complicated. You can create individual wreaths or Amy even put 8 individual wreaths together to create one big gorgeous wreath! What a fun idea!

And then last week I saw this gorgeous card with a removable ornament - isn't that a great idea! I've made these hearts before but never thought to do them for Christmas ornaments - I learned that they are called a julehjerte, which means Christmas heart in Danish - how perfect! I haven't finished my first one yet, but I plan on making a lot more of these as well, especially some with a more wintry theme - this one uses the Jingle papers but looks perfect for Valentine's Day.

Then here are some of my old favorites - this gives you an idea on how big the different German Stars are - the first one uses 1" strips, the second uses 3/4" strips, and the third uses 1/2" strips - the middle is my favorite size.

And more wreaths - each one uses the same papers from Jingle, I just used the back-side for a totally different look!

Thanks for looking! And if you have any links for more paper ornaments, please share, I would love to try them!

Blog Candy!

This post will stay at the top until December 15th, so scroll down for newer posts.

I am giving away some blog candy, since my original blog candy post was so long I decided to keep a shortened version at the top.

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Here is what you need to do to enter...the more you do, the more chances you have! You have until 11:59 PM (Mountain Time) December 15th to enter.
*Comment on this post and share your favorite holiday tradition
*Post a link on your blog telling others about my blog candy and be sure to comment here to let me know
*Become a Follower of my blog, if you aren't already

You can view my original post to see a little bit of what I will be giving away...but there will be more!

Inspiration Journal

I've had this notebook sitting around for a few years and I finally decided to put it to good use, so I altered it last week and turned it into an Inspiration Journal. I used a card sketch from Wishes called Confidential, Emporium papers, Checklist stamp set, Simple Stitches stamp set, various CTMH ribbons, and here's another little sneak peek at the stamp set that comes in the Felicity kit that will be available starting December 15th!

I made a little pocket on the inside of the front and back covers - instead of using the Simple Stitches stamp set I used a piercing tool and Cocoa marker to do some faux stitching. I decided that was too time consuming to do on the cover so that's when I decided to use the stamp set instead!

I'm looking forward to filling up my notebook with lots of inspiration - it will be nice to have it all in one place where I know where to find it!
Thanks for looking!

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
-A happy, healthy family is #1 of course - I have everything I could ever want, but since that wasn't the question, I'll fill in some more ;-)
-Nestabilities
-Wall-mounted Jewelry Box
-Wii
-Steam Mop
2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
-I have received SO many, it's hard to pick just one - my mom's crochet snowflakes are probably my most treasured, they decorate my tree every year!
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
-A complete scrapbook - the best I can do are a couple pages at a time ;-)
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
- When I was 4 (?) I got a saddle - I still remember the way my dad reacted when I ran into their room so excited to tell them what I got :-)
5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
-Kaylee - Spy Gear, Brianna - Dora and the Pegasus, Brailee - Cupcake Maker, and Trysten would be happy with the wrapping paper and shiny bows!
6. What is your favorite holiday food?
- Scottish Eggs and Sourdough Waffles
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
- knitted slippers, ornaments, cards
8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
- A Christmas Story of course - 'You'll shoot your eye out!'
9. Favorite holiday song?
- I LOVE Christmas music so it's hard to narrow it down to one - some of my favorites are Amy Grant's Breath of Heaven, and other favorite holiday albums are by Jewel, Eclipse, Sarah McLachlan, Josh Groban, and SheDaisy
10. Favorite holiday pastime?
-Opening Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve

Sweet Treat Card

Here is another fun project for my Holiday Workshop next week. I used some Sweet Treat Cups from SU! along with the Creative Basics paper and All Decked Out stamp set from CTMH to make a fun snowman card. I made one of these for each of my girls, they should enjoy them!





Thanks to Mike over at Stampin-Style for the fun sliding tag idea to get to the candy - I just moved mine to the inside of the card instead of the front like he did.
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Thanks for looking!

Flashback Friday

For today's flashback we're going back to 2001 - this is my hubby working as a Radiation Technician - they called them Rad. Tech.s. He had to do LOTS of walking, he went through so many work boots and had sore feet that summer!

This page is a sneak peek at the Felicity papers that will be available from Close To My Heart starting December 15th! I also used some Whimsy Heartfelt Die Cuts, Autumn Terracotta Textured Cardstock, Cocoa CS, Bamboo CS, Barn Red CS, sandpaper, and Autumn Terracotta Photo Clips, and New England Ivy Bigger Brads. This was also a layout from my PageMaps book.

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And since I'm up bright and early (since 1:30) with a sick kiddo, I'll share a couple more pictures. Remember that cool picture that I took on Wednesday? Well, I'm glad I braved the below zero temps to get it that morning - that night we had a lot of wind that blew all the snow off the ornaments and some of the ornaments off the tree. I thought they looked cool with the wind-blown snow and shadows so I was out again yesterday morning to get more pictures. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy taking pictures of my ornaments ;-P but I think they turned out pretty cool.

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Thanks for looking!

Look what Trysten did last night!

Just ignore the noisy girls in the background...but I was lucky to catch this on camera and there were no re-dos! He's 10 1/2 months old now - growing too fast!

Ever since the week of Thanksgiving he's been taking 2-3 steps at a time and I could NEVER get it on film, so this was so lucky - his first major steps!

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Other things Trysten is doing now:

*he can sign 'eat' and 'more'

*he can stand without pulling up on anything (he started doing this about 3 weeks ago)

*he likes to play with cars - he pushes them around and makes his car noises

*he LOVES to play with balls - he likes to crawl around and hit the ball and then chase it and do it again, he likes to play ball with his sisters and they like to make him 'fetch' ;-) and when he's standing he likes to 'kick' the ball

*he likes to throw things in the garbage - the other day I gave him a wadded up piece of paper and took him to the garbage and let him throw it in - big mistake! Just a few minutes later he found another piece of paper on the living room floor, crawled into the kitchen, pulled himself up along the garbage can and threw that in too! He learns fast!

*he likes to throw things, especially from his high chair, car seat, and shopping cart - he loves the pick-up game ;-)

*he likes to play 'So Big!' and 'Patty Cake'

*he makes the funniest little growling sound

*he can go up and down the stairs on his own

*he unfortunately loves the bathroom and playing in the toilet - with 3 bathrooms in the house and 5 people using them, it's easy for him to find a door that has been left open - as soon as he sees an open bathroom door, he makes a mad dash to get in there before anyone notices ;-)

*he is such a busy little boy - constantly on the move!

*he is NOT sleeping well :-( He used to sleep through the night and nap really well, but ever since he started crawling, that all went downhill. This week has been better, though, so maybe we're finally getting back to 'normal'!

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Thanks for letting me share!

Wordless Wednesday

Blog Candy! Because I have been given much...

...I too must give! It's time for some blog candy! I feel so blessed and it's time to share the love.

Scroll down to see what I am giving away and how you can win!

I have such a wonderful family that I love very much - I'm so lucky to have them all! Plus I enjoy my blogging friends - I have received some awesome prize packages over the last couple of months - check them out below! I also found out this week that I was selected to be on the Design Team for Sketches! {by tamara} - I'm so excited!

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This one was from 52 Sketches - I won for loading this layout in their gallery...


This one was blog candy from Terri...I finally have my first Bella's now, can you believe it!

I also won one of the MMB give-aways and won a fun pettiskirt from Cynthia - I sadly haven't taken any pics of the girls wearing it yet, but when I do, I'll post here - it is super cute!

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So now on to MY give-away! I meant to do a blog candy post back in August because it was my birthday month, plus I had 22 posts that month (which is my birthday AND lucky number), PLUS that put me at 300 posts total...but I just didn't get around to it ;-) So, now here we are in December {ack - where did this year go!} and decided to finally put something together. I guess better late than never ;-P

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Here is what you need to do to enter...the more you do, the more chances you have! You have until 11:59 PM (Mountain Time) December 15th to enter.

*Comment on this post and share your favorite holiday tradition

*Post a link on your blog telling others about my blog candy and be sure to comment here to let me know

*Become a Follower of my blog, if you aren't already!

And here is what is up for grabs so far - and I will be adding lots MORE this week! I have some page kits, more stamp sets, cards I have made, fun papers, and more goodies to add to the box, so I hope you'll participate - the more comments I get the more I will add!

Don't forget, you have until December 15th to enter - good luck! And I can't wait to read about your holiday traditions!

Cold hands...warm hearts!

It has been SO cold here in Wyoming lately - I guess it's to be expected since it's DECEMBER, but we were so spoiled with a nice warm November I guess I just wasn't ready for it yet! It was -10 this morning as I took the girls to school - brrr! We've been getting little skiffs of snow here and there, and on Saturday David was working over at his parent's house and we had about an inch of snow that had fallen that day so I asked the girls if they would go shovel the sidewalk for me. They were more than happy to, and they got excited and asked if they could shovel two of our elderly neighbor's sidewalks and driveways as well. They didn't do a perfect job, but I thought it was so sweet. When one neighbor came out to get his mail, Kaylee gave him a big hug, just warmed my heart! Even Brailee got in on the action, though she didn't stay out as long as her big sisters. Here they are, all bundled up...sorry the pics aren't very good, I took them from inside the house since I stayed in with Trysten.









I hope you're all staying warm - check back later for some blog candy!

J*O*Y

Here is another project completed last weekend - this one was a pretty quick one, and fun! I bought these wood letters last year and I'm excited to have them hanging up this year with my Christmas decorations! The letters were already white so I just covered them with paper, sanded the edges, and added accessories - the only thing I need to do is drill holes to hang the letters together, but I WILL get it done! They will hang like this...

All products used are from CTMH, except for the letters and the bells. I used the Evensong papers on this project - the 'J' and the 'Y' papers came from the Creative Basics kit and the 'O' paper came from the Level 2 kit. Here are some close-up pics with details...

To create the holly for the letter 'J' I used some of the Garden Green felt leaves from the Whimsy Heartfelt Die-Cuts - I just trimmed them to look like holly leaves. Then I added tiny red buttons from the Holiday Craft Button collection for berries.

For the letter 'O' I attached some jingle bells using White Daisy Sassy Strands.

For the letter 'Y' I attached a Holiday Fabric Tag along with some Cranberry ribbon and New England Ivy brads.

This project was inspired by some Fall wooden letters that I created a couple years ago...using Enchanted papers...

The spider web is embossed in White Daisy EP on a transparency and then cut out.

A cute little spider made from a black brad and wire...

More Sassy Strands...

Thanks for looking!

Holiday Trees

Here is another project that the girls and I did over the long Thanksgiving Weekend. This was a Super Saturday project from 3 years ago. I should learn not to sign up for any Super Saturday projects because I never have time to make them there since I am usually teaching at least one class myself, so I always have to take them home and complete them on my own time, which as you can see is usually years later ;-P

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Anyway, I don't even remember exactly how the original project looked - I think it had plaid stripes painted on the tree pieces - and there was different ribbon and some rafia included in my stashed project kit. But I decided to do it my own way. I used some paper from the Evensong Creative Basics paper that was available last Fall. The girls helped me paint the tree pieces and then we attached the paper and sanded the edges. Then we painted the stars yellow and sprinkled with glitter while it was still wet. I used some different ribbon to finish it off because the ribbon included didn't go with the paper that I decided to use here. The girls and I were happy with how these turned out!

Thanks for looking!

Finished Projects!

David spent a lot of time at his parent's house helping them with their new building over the long Thanksgiving weekend, so the girls and I spent that time creating. I was so pleased to get quite a few projects done - hooray! At the beginning of the year I made a goal to complete at least ONE project that I have stashed - many incomplete and some I never got around to starting. I am pleased to say I did more than that just this last weekend - I will be sharing them here over the next couple of days, I hope you enjoy! We also got our tree up and all of our inside decorations done in less than one day - that's a record for us, but it was sure nice to get the box mess put away that night! We decided not to mess with our village this year - that thing alone takes hours to set up!

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Anyway - on to the first project I will be sharing - this one is probably my favorite - or at least it's the one I'm the most excited about completing. When my mom used to come visit often, we would almost always have a project we would work on together. Well, this Advent Quilt is one that we started I don't know how many years ago! It was SO close to being done but sadly got pushed aside. So, this last weekend, I got it out FINALLY finished it up, and just in time to use it as one (of our 3) advent calendars this year!

Here is what I needed to do to complete this project:

*put eyes on all of the figures (they were supposed to be french knots but I cheated and used some black dimensional fabric paint that I had)

*stitch buttons to hang all of the figures on

*attach ribbon loops on the back of all the figures

*finish angel face (more puff paint to the rescue) and stitch her 'halo' and attach button berries

*make custom clay buttons for the Wise Men's gifts, Drummer Boy's drum, the tiny sheep in the shepherd's arm, a horn and a harp for two of the angels (the other buttons used were all store bought)

*attach ribbon to quilt to hang it!

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And here are some pictures of the finished project!

Here it is without any figures added - we will add a new one each night, saving Baby Jesus for Christmas Eve

And this is what it will look like with all of the figures added...

Here are some close-ups of the figures and details...first, the angels...

...then the sheep and drum that I made from clay...

...and the Wise Men and their giffts...

Thanks for looking!

Wordless Wednesday