Our Christmas Trees

I just had to participate in the December Challenge "Happy Helmar Holidays".  They have another fabulous sketch to use. As long as they have monthly challenges I'll be playing along! It's been fun playing along recently. It's always a challenge for me to get scrapbook pages made.  I guess I just love making cards and always need to make a Thank You card. I used the "Deck The Halls" alphabet die from Lifestyle Crafts for the title. I made the red sparkle ornaments with their circle nesting dies and Cherry Bomb Glitter Blast spray paint from Krylon. It's so awesome!!!

I decided the trees needed to be the actual pictures of all my Christmas trees. I fussy cut  photographs of my trees then used Helmar's Zapdots foam mounting squares to pop them up. Have you tried the Helmar Premium Craft Glue? It's like using a hot glue gun, but with out the wait for a hot glue gun to heat up or burn your fingers. So Awesome!!! The Gingerbread tree goes on my kitchen table, I made some of the ornaments with polymer clay. I just love gingerbread! The large tree with burgundy ribbon is for in my living room.TheTop Hat tree is in Parker's room - it has all the handmade beaded snowflakes and garland I made on it. Here's the link for my photo tutorial on how to make them.  Last year I got Chad to help me make a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, it goes in the bonus room. 

• Along the bottom the sentiments read "There seems a magic in the very name of Christmas. -Charles Dickens",     "We never outgrow our love for presents. -Alexandra Stoddard",      "The beginning is giving. -Muriel Rukeyser.     The white sentiment square reads "The best of all gifts around and Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family. -Burton Hills" The background paper is called Icon Dot Mistletoe from the Mistletoe collection of Making Memories.

Isn't it a great sketch!

I'm sharing this with Helmar, Lifestyle Crafts, Passionately Artistic, The Stuff of Success and Tatertots and Jello.

Tea, tea it's time for tea!

This week at Papercraft Star the challenge is tea or coffee. I decided I would take the challenge of tea since I am a coffee drinker and the inspirational photo is a tea party scene. I used a template from Layers Of Color along with the digital image Roses Botanical 064 from The House Across The Bay to make the teacup.

 I can't help but think of Alice In Wonderland when I think of tea. I love the scene at the Mad Hatters Unbirthday Tea Party.The inside of the card is a pop up teacup. I think I will be sticking to dies to try this technique again! I love the way it turned out, but took me a while to get it glued down just right to pop up when the card is opened! Our Sponsor The House Across The Bay has some fun digital images of scenes of Alice In Wonderland. I thought this image would be fun to use as the tag for a teabag!
Come play along with us and you could win some fun digital images, you have until 6am eastern time on Monday to link up your project. I know the other designers are sure to wow you too!

I'm sharing this with Layers Of Color, Passionately Artistic, Make It Monday and The Stuff Of Success.

Supplies:

Digital Images from The House Across The Bay Alice In Wonderland 176 and Roses Botanical 064

Stampers Select White Cardstock, 2008 Bitty Dot Basics paper from Papertrey Ink

Pink Damask paper from Stampin' Up!

Teacup Template from Layers Of Color

Adhesives from Helmar

Ribbon and twine from my stash
Metallic Gold Ink

Rocky Road Brownies

This week's challenge at Papercraft Star is to make a tag or gift card. I decided to make a simple gift tag and box using digital images from our sponsor The House Across The Bay. I used Christmas Squares 055 to make the box and Vintage Frames 100 for the gift tag.

In the box you can see the gift tag and the Rocky Road Brownies! Yummy!

I'm sharing my recipe with you below.

I hope you will come play along with us this week at Papercraft Star. You have until 6am eastern time to show off your tag or gift card holder. Plus possibly win some fabulous digital downloads!

I know the other designers that will have some things sure to inspire you!

Mmmm, look at all that gooey goodness!

Rocky Road Brownies

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 milk or buttermilk

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sugar

1 cup chocolate chips

3/4 chopped nuts  - I prefer pecans

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cocoa powder

1 cup marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 8x8 pan. Mix butter, milk, egg, vanilla and sugar. Add in the flour and cocoa powder. Stir in the chocolate chips, nuts and marshmallows. Pour in pan and bake about 30-35 minutes. Let cool and serve.

I'm sharing this with Really Reasonable Ribbon Top Tip Tuesday, Everybody Art Challenge, 

Anything Goes Challenge, Bearly-Mine, Passionately Artistic and The Stuff Of Success.

Supplies:

Digital Images from The House Across The Bay Christmas Squares 055 and Vintage Frames 100

Martha Stewart Gingerbread Punch and scoring Board

Stampin' Up! Merry Christmas Stamp
Green, Red and White cardstock from stash

Red Satin Ribbon from my stash

Holiday pick from Hobby Lobby

Christmas Ornament

I made this card by fussy cutting several branches from the Christmas Botanicals digital paper. I made the ornaments with Fabric Circles, covered them in Liquid Glass, glued a paperclip to the back, tied a bow on them and attached them to the card with foam mounting squares. Finally I stamped Peaceful Wishes.
Ta-dah!
You have until 6am eastern time Monday to come play along in this week's challenge at Papercraft Star to win some digital downloads from our sponsor The House Across The Bay.

 I'm sharing my card with The Stuff Of Success and Passionatley Artistic.

Supplies:
Digital Image Fabric Circles 065 & Christmas Botanicals 069 from The House Across The Bay
Ribbon from my stash
Peaceful Wishes stamp from Stampin' Up!
Paperclips
Foam Mounting Squares
Liquid Glass

Snowman Poop

Today I'm sharing my hot cocoa recipe and a fun little gift I will be giving to my sister Roxanne for Christmas. She's getting Snowman Poop!

Here's the inside of the treat packaging. You can see I stapled a snack size ziploc bag in it full of marshmallows, I mean snowman poop ;)

I made a matching card too. I think the snowman is so funny! I won this digital image recently from at challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow. It's called Bad Hair Day.

I used my Windsor & Newton Iridescent Medium to give a nice shimmer to the snowman. No onto the recipe for the best hot cocoa!

Ingredients

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup white sugar

1 pinch salt

1/3 cup boiling water

3 1/2 cups milk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup half-and-half cream

Directions

Combine the cocoa, sugar and pinch of salt in a saucepan. Blend in the boiling water. Bring this mixture to an easy boil while you stir. Simmer and stir for about 2 minutes. Watch that it doesn't scorch. Stir in 3 1/2 cups of milk and heat until very hot, but do not boil! Remove from heat and add vanilla. Divide between 4 mugs. Add the cream to the mugs of cocoa to cool it to drinking temperature.

I'm sharing this with Sugar Creek Hollow, Really Reasonable Ribbon, Stampotique Designer's Challenge, Passionately Artistic and The Stuff Of Success.

Papercraft Star Challenge 74

The challenge this week is a Tree at Papercraft Star. I used my Copic markers to color my Melissa Frances Tree. For the background I used several digital images from our sponsor The House Across The Bay. The green postcard digital image reminds me of a letter to Santa.

I hope you will come play along with us. I know you will be inspired by the other designers too! If you play along you could win some digital downloads. The challenges are always posted far in advance, which makes it easy to plan and make a craft ahead of time! You have until 6am eastern time to link up!

 

Isn't the tree lovely plain white too!

 

Supplies:

Digital images Seeing Red 056 and Green Grunge 054 from The House Across The Bay

Melissa Frances Tree embellishment

White satin ribbon from my stash

 

Peace Love Joy

I had fun playing with my twine making this Christmas card. I used a spirelli technique to make the wreath. There are a bunch of video tutorials on You Tube here is the link for one. The stamp and the embossing folder came from Stampin' Up! Spellbinders Labels Sixteen is one of my favorite dies!

I'm  excited to see that Scrapscene posted my card on their blog today! Yay!

Here's the link to it. They are going to highlight a new Christmas card everyday!