The "Right" Tree

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is all about finding the "right" tree. Anyone who has one of these animals knows what I'm talking about! Isn't this image a hoot? I was standing in line last week at AC Moore (on Black Friday) and I picked up a stamping magazine. I don't remember which one it was, maybe Rubber Stamp Madness, and I saw a card using this image and I just started to laugh! It's from a company called Eat Cake Graphics. When I got home, I googled the company and ordered the stamp pronto! I'm a dog person, so I look for any cute dog stamps and make cards to send to my friends who love dogs like I do. I colored the image with copic markers and added glitter on the trees and the falling snowflakes. I used the sketch from the SCS sketch challenge SCS202. The dp is from a Christmas pack from DCWV. It's very old, but has some great papers in it that can be used anytime. I punched the dp with SU's scallop square. The ribbon is something I picked up last year at AC Moore. There is 9 feet of ribbon on the spool, so I can make a bunch of these cards! I used Garden Green as my base and white and real red as my layers. Super easy card to make, even the coloring went fast because there's not much to color. The inside says "Fleas Navidog"! It's a stamp from Stamp La Jolla that I picked up at a stamp show a few years ago in Buffalo. Well, I hope this made you smile like it did for me! Happy Holidays and thanks for stopping by!

Recipe

Stamps: Finding the Right Tree (Eat Cake Graphics), Sentiment (Stamp La Jolla), Snowflake (Art Impressions)

Paper: Garden green, real red, white, DCWV Chirstmas Stack

Ink: Adirondack black, garden green, real red, copic markers

Accessories: SU Scallop square punch, ribbon (AC Moore), glitter, dimensionals

Merry Christmas Dear Friend

***See the post below for the blog candy winner!***
Today's Featured Stamper is Anna (annascreations on SCS) and she has a great gallery. She does a lot of the brayered skies that Michelle Zindorf does. I love the look, but when I look at Michelle's tutorials, I run! They look like a lot of work! I'll just stand back and admire! I chose Anna's card Amethyst Butterfly because I really liked the monochromatic look. I don't do a lot of monochromatic cards, but they are beautiful and easy to do, I might add! I don't have the Top Note die from SU that Anna used, but my Labels 1 nestability die is very similar, so I used the largest one. I started by choosing my dp. I have a lot of last year's SU Dashing paper (I still love that one) and found this one in red and vanilla stripe on one side and vanilla and red dots on the other. The dots reminded me of snow falling and I wanted a Christmas card, so I went with this paper. The main image is from a retired SU set called Always on My Mind. I actually just bought this from Holly McMillen (aka Toy) when she was moving to Colorado from Buffalo this summer. She had a big garage sale, and I think I bought six of her sets! I really like the images in this set and it was perfect for this because it can be colored, but also can be left just one color. It's stamped in real red as is the sentiment, which is SU's Cute & Curly. It is punched with the curly label punch. The ribbon is PTI's Pure Poppy grosgrain and the half pearls are Hero Arts. I moved the pearls to the top of the card, as this is where they best fit on my card (Anna's were towards the bottom of her card). The base of the card is PTI's Vintage Cream (love that paper...so creamy-looking). The sentiment on the inside is from Holiday Wishes, also PTI. Well, that's all folks...it's back to work Monday (unless we have a snow day! Wear your pjs inside out and do the snow dance is what I tell my students to do! Excuse me while I do my jig! See you tomorrow!
Recipe
Stamps: Always on My Mind (SU retired), Cute & Curly (SU), Holiday Wishes (PTI)
Paper: PTI Vintage cream, real red, Dashing dp (SU retired)
Ink: Real red
Accessories: PTI Pure Poppy grosgrain ribbon, Labels 1 nestabilities, curly label punch, scallop border punch, Hero Arts pearls, dimensionals

And the Winner Is...

Pamela! Here's what she said:

We open our gifts Christmas morning. First we have a breakfast of "whompems"--which is actually donuts made from biscut dough. My husband's family started calling them that because you whomp the can of biscuts to open them. We strect the dough to make a hole in the middle and deep fry them. (I know, not healthy but it is Christmas!) Then we top them with a carmel like sauce made with brown sugar, butter, etc. After breakfast we gather together and my husband reads the Christmas story from the Bible that he was given by his family we he went into the Air Force at age 18. The Bible has been used so much that it is falling apart. My kids (now grown, still want the story read from that Bible. Then we pray and thank God for blessing and for trials and for bringing us through those trials. We also pray for whatever is on our hearts. Then...it is time to open presents. I then start the big meal while everybody else puts toys together or gets in their "stuff". It is a fun day.Thanks for such a generouse giveaway. Have a great day.

Congratulations Pamela! What a great tradition you and your family celebrate each year. I will be contacting you for your address to send you your blog candy!

It was so good to hear all of your holiday traditions! I'm so glad you all stopped by to comment. It's like getting "happy mail" when I see all of your comments! I wish all of you a happy and safe holiday season, and wishes for a happy stamping new year!

P.S. I used Random.org to pick the number 6, which was Pamela's number. Here's the info from the website:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:6
Timestamp: 2008-12-08 00:39:58 UTC

Thanks so much!

Blog Candy Time!

ETA: This contest is now closed. Thanks for commenting! : )

Hi everyone! Sorry I didn't post this sooner, but I fell asleep this afternoon! I never do that, but I had a doctor's appointment earlier, then had to deliver my SU orders and got very sleepy after an early dinner. Boy did that feel good!

Anyway, here is the blog candy I'm giving away for having 10,000 hits! There are two stamp sets from My Favorite Things and SU, some ribbon, SU rub-ons, holiday paper, brads, Making Memories frames, and some primas and other "stuff".

Here's what I'd like you to tell me in your comment: What are some of your holiday traditions? I love to hear what other people do...I find it interesting. In my family, we celebrate Christmas Eve with a Polish dinner called "wigilia". It's a meatless dinner of homemade kluski (made sort of like a dumpling) with honey poured over the them, a soup made from prunes and navy beans (my LEAST favorite part of the dinner), and a sort of mushroom soup that my mom starts making about a week before we eat it. We all start the dinner passing around the wafer my mom gets from our church. For dessert, I make my grandmother's cheesecake. It's not like the New York style with cream cheese. It's made with a yeast dough and farmer's and cottage cheeses on top (along with eggs, milk, lemon juice, sugar, etc mixed in). It's so delicious and I only make it at Christmas and Easter. That's the only time she made it and I think I'm the only one who loves it as much as she did! We've always opened our gifts on Christmas Eve as well...even as a child. Santa always snuck in while we were eating dinner...he was always so sneaky!

Well, that's it...my first blog candy giveaway! I'll leave this open until Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m., so leave a comment and please pass the word. I know there are lurkers out there who don't comment, and I'd love to hear from you! Thanks so much for stopping by!

It's a Blog Celebration!

Hey, have you seen my counter? Over 10,000 hits! It's time for a celebration! Watch tomorrow for my blog candy giveaway! I'll have a picture of the stuff I'm going to give away posted here tomorrow, so please stop by and thanks for continuing to take a peek at my humble blog!

I'm Stuffed...

...like my turkey! Are you? I hope you all had a very nice Thanksgiving Day. I know I did. My DH and I hosted dinner at our house for his mom and dad and my mom. I made the dinner, my mom made the sweet and sour cabbage ("kapusta" in Polish) that we all love, and my MIL made the pies...pumpkin, lemon meringue and chocolate. Hence, I'm stuffed! I decided to make place cards this year because I was inspired by Nichole Heady's blog entry about table settings using her First Fruits set. I guess I was most inspired by Debbie Olson's setting and made these place cards. I stamped the pineapple in Appricot Appeal and Garden Green on vanilla cardstock. That green is so rich! I just got this pad a few weeks ago and don't understand why I never got it sooner! I cut and embossed it using the oval nestabilities then backed it with a piece of Appricot Appeal using a larger oval. The Garden Green base (4.25" x 5.5") was run through the swiss dots cuttlebug folder and folded in half. I used a glitter pen on the dots of the pineapple and it shined in the light. I used Women of Life and Men of Life (which I just got on Wednesday, in time to do these!) for the "names". I decided to go generic for my DH and I, using "son" and "daughter". (I had a "husband" stamp, but not "wife"!) I made two "mom" placecards, but only took a picture of one of them. Everyone thought they were pretty and took them home. I gave the son and daughter ones to my MIL to use when she has us over for dinner sometime (soon I hope!). Have a great weekend and "Happy Shopping" to all of you crazy shoppers out there! Oh, and remember...blog candy as soon as I reach 10,000 hits!!
Recipe
Stamps: Women of Life, Men of Life, First Fruits (all PTI)
Paper: Vanilla, garden green, appricot appeal
Ink: Appricot appeal, garden green
Accessories: Oval nestabilities, small and large SU oval punches, glitter pen, swiss dots cb folder

Happy Thanksgiving!

I made a few cards this weekend for Thanksgiving. This one I shamelessly cased from Debbie Olson. I went to the PTI store and clicked on the gallery for this First Fruits set to get some ideas and saw this card by Debbie and just couldn't think of way to change it to make it different, so I just cased! I did add the artichoke piece behind the dp and made the card a 5.25" square, omitted the jewels and changed the ribbon, so I guess it is a little different! I made two of these...one for my mom and the other for my in-laws. I used pumpkin pie on the tips of the wheat by just touching the tip of the pad to the tips of the wheat. Then I took a chocolate chip marker and colored in the stems right on the stamp and stamped it on Naturals Ivory cardstock. It was then cut and embossed with the largest oval nestability. Before I took it out of the die, I sponged in some More Mustard, concentrating most of the color in the center and worked my way out. The dp is also PTI's First Fruits and the ribbon is unknown. It's red on the reverse side. The image in on dimensionals. For the inside, I took a strip of the background dp and cut along the scallops. Again I used artichoke and naturals ivory cardstock. I used various stamps for the sentiment. After the card was completed, I added orange stickles to the tips of the wheat to sparkle it up a bit. I set it aside far away from me to dry...how many of you know the reason for that? I can't tell you how many times I've messed up my stickles!

Since I had the Naturals Ivory cardstock out, I thought I'd use it on this card. It was ok, but I wasn't that pleased with the outcome. I stamped this SU Season of Friendship stamp in chocolate chip for the tree and then used sage shadow, really rust, and creamy caramel for the leaves. The dp is Autumn Vine and the other cardstock is sage shadow and chocolate chip. The sentiment is from So Grateful from GinaK Designs. The big brad is a build-a-brad from SU using the same dp. I used a glitter pen on the tree and leaves, which doesn't show up on the picture. When it hits the light, it shimmers nicely!

Well, since I wasn't really happy with this card, I had to something to make it better because I had about five more to make! So this next card is one I came up with that I like much better.

I wanted to used the same stamp set, but changed to PTI white instead. It just popped off the page much better. I also used a sketch from Our Creative Corner. As I was linking this site, I noticed that Dawn Easton made a card very similar to mine (I swear I did not see hers...I found this sketch on Cindy Haffner's blog!). Anyway, I used the OCC sketch along with the Autumn Vine dp again and PTI white as the base. I like this so much better. The ribbon is SU's chocolate chip grosgrain and the sentiment is from PTI's Out on a Limb. I also used the glitter pen on the tree and leaves. This was very easy to do and quick. I made five of these within a reasonable amount of time (for me, at least!). Here's the inside. I really like the way the leaf border looks. The sentiment is from My Sentiments Exactly that I got at my LSS, Buffalo Stamps & Stuff, a while ago.

Well, thanks for letting me blah, blah, blah! I haven't posted in so long and I've been feeling guilty watching my counter grow each day. I'm getting close to 10,000 hits, so watch for some blog candy! I found some things I purchased twice (without knowing) and some other fun stuff, so please keep stopping by! Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. friends and have a great week to everyone else!