Merry, Merry Christmas!

With the help of a couple of friends, I’ve drummed up enough spirit to share what they sent me on my blog.  While I sat in front of my webcam wearing a Santa hat while chatting with my very good friend Dee in St. Louis, I opened the box she sent me.  In it was a darling (and unbroken) glass ornament of a little silver schnauzer.  Dee knows how much I miss my Lady girl.  Also in there was a glass canning jar (also unbroken) full of the makings for barley soup!  Then a tin of spritz and butter cookies, the ones with powdered sugar on them!  Last but not least, was this gorgeous Christmas card with a silver embossed snowflake and embossed brushed silver CS.  Very classy!

Dee is coming in early January and will be my guest at the Creative Images shoebox swap.  Can’t hardly wait!

That same day, my fellow demo friend Diana Gibb in Arizona heard my plea for one of her little owl calendars.  I had commented on her blog, here, that I’d love to have one and she sent it to me!  Here’s a pic I swapped off her blog.  Mine has different colors, but her pic is better than my scan.  The back is covered in a magnet sheet to go on the fridge.  The eyes are little jewels.

Di also sent me one of her Christmas cards.  I’ll have to borrow Pam’s Northern Flurries embossing folder to CASE this someday.  I love how she stamped the date in red and punched it out with the small oval.  You’d think SU would’ve made a punch to fit perfectly, but nope.

Yep, it was Di’s card on her blog here that I learned her tip:  “To get that Real Red Decorative Label punch layer behind the white punched out image, cut the punched out red label in half and then glue it under the white punched one, it gives the "look" of being layered but its really the same punch.”  I used that idea on a make and take for Helen’s workshop and my Christmas swap tags.  Di’s blog is one of my favorites that I visit almost every day.  If clicking on the “here” links doesn’t work for you, copy and paste this into your browser:  http://dianagibbs.typepad.com/stampin_with_di/ 

Well, that’s it until Creative Images’ shoebox swap on January 8.  Ya’ll have a very Merry Christmas.  See you next year!

Thanks for stopping by.  Comments are always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Creative Images’ Christmas Party, Part 2

Well, that’s pretty annoying.  I had this post all done except for the signature block.  Copied that in and boom, it was gone.  Eighteen pics, poof.  So, let’s try it again! 

We had 17 ladies at the party and our cruising Helen participated through Theresa, so we had 18 exchange cards with the “Winter Wonderland” theme.

First up is Rosie’s bright cardinal, water colored and fussy cut.

Connie said this was only the second card she ever embossed.  The inside sentiment is “Wise Men still seek Him.”  Perfect.

Dani did this happy dancing Santa.

Ella water colored this Victorian scene of a horse and sleigh.

In real life, Helen’s snowflakes were embossed on brushed gold CS.

Holly made this merry card with three trees.

Janice fussy cut the “S N W” for this cute snowman shaker card.

Here’s Jeannie’s mystical blue polar bear.

This is my black and white tree scene.

Linda S. water colored this sleigh and wreath with glitter and snow added.

Linda T. embossed and punched these snowflakes.

Lona colored and glittered this holly card.

Melanie used fabric on this Santa in his sleigh.

Patty masked this lovely moonlit scene.

Therese made a paper cast for the focal image of these snowy trees.

Tange’s cute snowman is peeking out from under his purple cap.

This is Theresa’s holly, little birdy and die cut corners.

Ursula water colored and blinged this Christmas tree.

That’s all 18 cards!  See you all at the shoebox swap on January 8.

Thanks for stopping by.  Comments are always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Creative Images’ Christmas Party, Part 1

We had such a great turnout for last night’s Christmas party, that I have too many pictures for just one post.  We have 20 members and 17 came and everyone brought a Winter Wonderland exchange card and most brought tags for the swap.  I think I’ll do tags, gifts, and misc. pics for this first post.  As always, you can click on a pic to enlarge it and hit back key to return to post. 

First up, tags.  I’ll try to identify who did what.  Linda S. made this gorgeous red and white tag that looks like scherenschnitte, the German art of paper cutting.  Linda said the red was stickers!  I used to love doing scherenschnitte and still love my fussy cutting.

 

These next three are Patty’s little mittens, Helen’s ornament and Holly’s canvas holly.  Holly’s looks like counted cross stitch, but she used markers for the stitches on the stamped holly. 

These six tags are Janice’s shiny green ornament, Rosie’s blue snowflakes, Theresa’s Just for You scalloped circles, Connie’s canvas snowman, Ursula’s snowman and Linda T’s Happy Holidays.

These five are Jeannie’s Santa, my fir branch, Dani’s Merry Christmas, Ella’s Holly and house and Therese’s flying Santa.

Tange was finishing these Santas up at the party!

Four ladies had time to make and bring in gifts for everybody!  Ella made the jam jar with cookies inside, Lona brought chocolate covered pretzels and Helen did up hot chocolate envelopes.

Melanie was late because her gingerbread men were still baking!  Here’s Jeannie holding one of them.

We had the usual rowdy Chinese gift exchange with lots of giving and taking!  While the gifts were supposed to be anonymous, the first gift opened by new member Linda T. turned out to have been made by another new member, Patty.  We couldn’t keep that a secret, it was so special.  Patty decorated/embellished this paper mache book box (maybe from Hobby Lobby) and filled it with the makings of Christmas cards.

 

Here’s the sample card, the stamped back of the sample and Linda showing off the sample.  She was the first to choose a gift, but she didn’t have it long!

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Here’s our tables of yummy snacks, savory and sweet.  We put a pretty big dent in all those goodies! 

I think that’s it for this post.  I’ll do the exchange cards next.

Thanks for stopping by.  Comments are always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Vulcan

Last week Russel and I went to Birmingham, AL, for his annual company Christmas party.  We didn’t get around much, but we did go to the highest point in Birmingham to Vulcan Park.  Vulcan is the god of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes, in ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism (thanks Wikepedia).  A statue of Vulcan was cast in 1904, did time at the St. Louis World’s Fair and was erected in 1936 at his present location.  He was extensively repaired in 1999 to his initial glory, with much controversy over his bum.  To cover it or not to cover it, that was question.  Here’s a few pics we took late in the afternoon, with the sun setting behind him.  Click on any picture to enlarge it and hit back key to return to this post.

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Here you can see his hammer and anvil.

Here’s a pic of what they decided to do about his bum.  They left it as the sculptor intended.  Thank goodness for the apron in the front!

He is a great lightning attractor, too, with lightning rods stuck in the top of his head and on the end of his spear.

If you’re interested in more, go to http://www.visitvulcan.com/.

Thanks for stopping by.  Comments are always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Helen’s Workshop

Yesterday Helen hosted a workshop at Theresa’s and we had a great time.  Theresa is a terrific cook and made monkey bread for us to start on and a marvelous lunch of two kinds of quiche and an apple salad.  Janice brought her lemon fluff dessert which finished off our day perfectly.  I forgot my camera, but managed to take a few pics with my phone!  As always, click on the pic to enlarge it and hit back to return to post.

First up, a coupla monkeys going for the monkey bread!

Then, Jeannie being silly with two of my samples.

Helen and her hostess gift.  Instead of candies it was full of ribbons and other little SU goodies.

Here’s Therese, Janice and Jeannie working hard!

Here’s our first make and take, made with Bells and Boughs DSP, Cherry Cobbler and Always Artichoke cardstock and Tags Till Christmas stamp set.  We used the decorative label, circle scallop and eyelet border punches, and the Petals a Plenty embossing folder.  Punched out a cherry cobbler decorative label and scalloped circle and after cutting the decorative label in half and trimming off the little points by the cut, layered all three together for a punched up focal point popped up on dimensionals. 

Here’s our second make and take using sweet treat cups and Sweet Snowglobe.  Colors of CS are Marina Mist, Whisper White and Bashful Blue.  I think on this sample, I took a q-tip to the trees and house to remove the bashful blue ink from the stamp, then colored on the rubber with red and green markers.  In the class, we just stamped the image with bashful blue and colored right over it.  Worked great.  A glue pen, glitter, fluffy snow and ribbon finished it off.

Thanks for stopping by.  Comments are always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)