Dear Santa

I believe

Another one using the sketch I found over here.

These were so much fun.   I will probably make a couple more using this sketch.  Stay tuned for more pics.  I've been using a lot of stickers this year with my cards.  This one is actually no stamping at all.  Which is random?!?  Oh remind me to tell you about the Michael's excursion where I and the Pr!ssy Pals went crazy buying stickers one day.  Yep we pretty much had to have them ALL.  It started with the Martha Stewart aisle and went downhill from there.  This card uses a Mary Englebreit sticker I picked up at the dollar bins in Michael's (always my first stop, I love me some dollar bins).

May You Find Joy!

This one spoke to me ,)  A moment of silence....

Thank you

Heads bow

 

Amen

I'll edit later with the dete's after I overcome the shock and awe.  Amen.

TWINE

One more quick post tonight.  I S.C.O.R.E.D again in the hoarding bulk-bargain-shopping arena again.  I stumbled upon an Etsy shop that sells the bakers twine that I've been using a lot of lately.  It's called "The Twinery".  They have lots of twine over there and they offer sampler packs with eight colors of twine with 15 yards of each color.  So I called on one of my P. R.!S.S.y pals {that's P.aper, R.ibbon, !nk, Stampin', Scrappin' and Y.atayatayata for those of  you who don't know this} over at Shadow's Castle Stamps to see if she would like to split one of the samplers with me.  That gave us each 7-8 yards of each color.  The sampler arrived today... it was a good mail day.  Lookie

It comes bundled (the package on the right)with cute little labels. I wound my portion onto some empty wooden spools that I had leftover when I wound all of my other ribbons onto my new ribbon keepers.  I wound two colors to a spool because there was room for it.  I just love the names of the colors.  Maraschino cherry (heart), Mandarin, Lemondrop, Peapod, Cappuccino (heart), Pink Sorbet, Caribbean and Lilac.  Get out.

Amen

I feel very reverent lately and shall end everything from here on out with an Amen, a moment of silence OR prayer as necessary.

Right now I just feel holy.

Holy Mother of Pearl help me.

Dear Santa

I been having a lot of fun finding inspiration all over blogoland this Christmas Season for my holiday cards.  The design for this card came from a blog called Mish-Mash.  I've been wanting to use the Cosmo Cricket tiny letter stickers on a project and this one was just perfect for it.  I used the A Muse 4.25 in. square green & white circus stripe cardstock for my base.  Then I used a Martha Stewart Gnome sticker from the "Gnome and Woodland" package.  Even though this is a summery package of stickers, when I saw the Gnome I just knew he would make a cute Santa.  The manila envelope I made using a Spellbinder's mini-envelope die.

Meet bobble-head gnome (his head is popped up onto a tiny spring).  Its pretty cute, making it an action card.  As if he wasn't cute enough, I added the little white pompom to his hat.  His beard is felt.

Inside the mini-envelope is a tag I embellished with a snowflake sticker and some coordinating ribbons.

I really like how this turned out and I love the colors.  

Dear Santa,

I still want an iPad for Christmas. te-he

Merry ChrisMOOSE!

Another quick card...  This one is really cute.  I used some felt moose.  I picked up a package of these in assorted colors last year on closeout after Christmas at Borders.   I think they were 80% off.  I knew I was going to use them to create.  The sled and the sentiment are both from A*Muse Art Stamps.  I stamped the sled onto the card and then again onto a coordinating paper.  Then paperpieced it onto the card.  The holly was created by using 3 red dew drops and the holly leaves were snipped from a piece of ribbon.  I made the snow by tearing a scrap and affixing it with glue along the bottom of the card.  I always have to add some glittery shimmer to a holiday card.  This was quick and easy! 

Envy

Ha! had ya goin' there din't I?  I like to coordinate or customize an envelope (aka envies in papercraft circles) with each of my handmade cards.   For each one of these I did a simple punch in the corner of the envelope.  When the card is inserted into the envelope you can then see a coordinating color peek through the punch window.

I also like to include a customized signature on the back of each card.  Normally I just use a coordinating mini-stamp, initial and date each card.  I think it makes each card nice and personalized.  I Thought I'd share a snapshot of each of the finished batches of cards.  I think I have a total of 30 cards FINISHED and its not even JULY?!?

  

They might even go out before Three Kings Day this year (Jan 06).  My husband and I have a standing joke because normally I am a little late with my cards (NOT).  He kind of gets on me and says, "when are you going to start making your cards?  If you don't hurry up they will be late."  To which I always reply, "If I get them out by Three Kings Day I'm "safe".  Te-he.  I always say the holiday isn't over until Three Kings Day or July 4th whichever comes first.


HEY haven't you ever heard of.... Christmas in July.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Friends are the true gift of the season!

I thought the star punch was a good coordinate with Santa and Wreath

 Close-up of "envy" and back of card (Initial and Year)

With a nice coordinating mini-wreath stamp.

Enjoy the wonders of the season, envelope and back of card.

I like how the snowflake punch and mini-snowman stamp coordinates with Polar Bear

 Close-up of and back of card (Initial and Year)

Believe~

I thought the snowman punch and mini snowman stamp coordinated well with this card

 closeup

Wishing You Holiday Peace.  

The deer punch worked great with this card

It's fun to coordinate punches and mini-stamps to make Envy's. Give it a try and see if someone doesn't envy your creations.  Speaking of envy.  It was 72 degrees today in the shade.  Don't hate.

May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart.. ~Eskimo Proverb

For this card I used my A*Muse stamps Igloo, Eskimo Proverb, Heart Trio and Love Shack (stove pipe chimney).  I just love this sentiment.  It was another quick card using all things A*Muse.  I stamped the igloo, coated it with some diamond dust glitter and used my yellow Stickles for the glow of my oil lamp coming from the igloo door.  I affixed the igloo onto the card with a popdot.  I also inked just the stovepipe chimney of the Love Shack stamp to add it to the igloo.  This was a quick and fun card to make.  19 down 31 to go...

ENJOY

Close-up

Rudolph the Red Nosed Polar Bear?

Woohoo two posts in one night!  I Love Frosty Nights, Snowy Days and Warm Hearts. I just love this A Muse sentiment.  Its on the inside this card.  I'm super happy with this card.  I designed and dreamed it up.  I used the A*Muse art stamp Starry Night background and Polar Bear.  I masked off an area and glittered the ground for the snow.  I paper-pieced the polar bear and popped him onto a pop dot so he was raised out from the card.  I added some bling to the starry night, a red candy to his nose, a puff-ball for his tail (fun) and tied a mix of 3 different color tiny bakers twine for a scarf around his neck.  This was a quick card.  I will probably make a few more of these because he was so cute!

EDITED TO UPLOAD THE NEWEST VERSION W/SWIRLS AND SENTIMENT ADDED.

I Embellished!

I was very productive this weekend.  See this post <--- In addition to winding 648 yards of ribbon I re-org'd my entire craft room.  The first arrangement I had it in was making me tired.  SOOOO yep I was organizing my organization once again.  Of course its always way more than I expected but once its done so nice.  As you can see by the pictures that follow it helped because I really got a lot done craftiwise.  I EMBELLISHED.

I'm making great progress on my Christmas cards this year. I C.A.S.E.d these (that's copy and share w/everyone) in case you were wondering from a variety of sources...

 ***= Link to credits

The haul (so far, I have lots more I want to make.  I usually make 30-40 cards every year)

The next ones I used a set "Believe" from Papertrey Ink.  I followed the design from the website and tweaked it to use supplies that I had on hand.  Oops there's a ribbon on the 3rd one on the right that's out of place.  See it?

***

The little wreaths I made from a pipe cleaner and just twisted it around my pinky to make it small enough.  I just love this set and am glad that I got to use it this year.

***

This next set of 10 cards I finally finished.  I started these last year but they never went out because I needed to finish the glittering.  These had a lot of fine details and cutting.

These were quick cards.  The sentiment is A Muse.  The little houses were from a package of stickers.  I'm trying to make more quick cards this year.  Read previous caption...

This card I C.A.S.E.d in its entirety from one of my favorite blogger friends Anna Wight over at Sweet & Sassy.  I just love all of her things.  Hers looks nicer.  I need more glitter.

***

Enjoy!  I hope you are getting all of your cards for the holidays done too!  Making a list... checking it twice.  Have fun!!!

RIBBON!!!?

I thought I'd get up this a.m. and finish organizing my ribbons.  I purchased new ribbon spooler's (The Best Craft Organizer, Spool and Store Ribbon storage & dispenser system. <--- I bought mine from Inky Antics.  NOTE: this is non-compensated.  Me likey and thought I'd give a critique.  So listen up! 

I'm always looking for ways to store my loose ribbon that takes up less space.  I thought to myself... self, this will only take you an HOUR tops.   You can spool it while sipping the morning KAWFEE and by the time you are done with your KAWFEE you'll be done.  What time is it?  Yep almost five p.m. and I am just now finishing up.  However, it is all spooled now, color coordinated and I will not ever have to do this again.  EVER. 

I highly recommend this system just start using it before you stockpile 5 years of ribbon.  I only spooled the loose ribbon that I have.  The ribbon that was already on a spool or greater than 3 yards stayed on the original packaging.  If it ain't broke don't fix it.

• Organized by color not style. 
• There are six dispensers per storage tray 
• 6 slots in each dispenser
• Each spool/slot holds approx 3 yards of ribbon
• Each dispenser can hold up to six, 1/2 to 1 inch ribbon or
• 12, 1/4 inch ribbon
• Each dispenser holds from 18-36 yards of ribbon. 
• I have 6 total storage trays (36 dispensers)

You do the math.  Amen.  Apparently I have 480-14,000 yards of ribbon. 

A moment of silence please, bow heads.  Thank you

 Red, Orange, Yellow...

 Green

 Blue

 Purple, Indigo, Pink

 Whites, Blacks, Browns, room to grow

 Golds, Silvers, Neutrals, room to grow and the spooler tool that stores nicely in the tray.  I have one empty tray still in the box in case I get more ribbon.

May Your House Always be Too Small...

to Hold All of Your Friends...  I just love this A Muse sentiment.  Just a quick update today

Gobble Gobble

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!  I thought I'd share one last recipe with all of my family and friends.  I hope everyone is having a lovely day.   So much to be grateful for.  enjoy

Simple Stuffing Recipe

1 stick of butter
2 quarts of organic chicken broth (or favorite broth)
1 cup of craisins (or raisins, I like craisins because they add a pretty color)
2 boxes of cubed herb stuffing (or homemade croutons using favorite choice of bread)

Coarsely chop:
Celery
Onion
Mushrooms
Roasted Pecans (or walnuts or favorite nut)
Apples (or a pear)

Finely chop:
Fresh,
Parsely
Sage
Rosemary
Thyme
Garlic

Melt butter in a large sauce pan on the stove.  Add all ingredients.  Cook for approx 5 minutes.  You just want the onions and celery to become soft.  I don't use a specific amount for each ingredient.  I just like a good bread to veggie ratio.  If I had to measure I would say approximate 2 cups of each diced ingredient to 2 boxes of cubed stuffing mix.  Makes enough to stuff the turkey and a side dish.

The usual suspects

Combined

Fold the above mix into bread cubes and use broth just to moisten.
Don't over do it like I just did.  Then the bread cubes get mooshy

Run turkey RUN...

PIES Part 2 ~Caramel Banana Hazelnut Pie and a Tutorial

I've never made this pie before but I saw the recipe over on The Farm Chicks and well lets just say she had me at heller!!!  I thought I'd post another tutorial of my process.  Lawsy I'm thankful for...

Caramel Banana Hazelnut Pie

Crust:

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Add flour and sugar to a large bowl or food processor.  Cut in butter until it looks like sand.  Stir or pulse in egg yolk and vanilla until combined.  Pour crumb mixture into a 9" pie or tart pan and press evenly onto bottom and sides of the pan.  Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly browned and your kitchen smells like heaven.  Remove from oven and cool.

Caramel:

3/4 cup butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Add butter, brown sugar, and cream to a saucepan, cooking and whisking at medium-high heat until bubbling all over.  Reduce heat so mixture continues to boil softly.  Cook and whisk for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.  Set aside to cool slightly.  (This is a generous amount of caramel.  If you have a little leftover, use it to drizzle on the plate when you serve, or save as an ice-cream topping.  Just keep it in a jar in the fridge to enjoy!)

Bananas and Hazelnuts:

2 bananas, sliced (I used 3 bananas)

1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

1 Hammer (optional te-he)

Line pie crust with sliced bananas and top with chopped hazelnuts.  Gently pour caramel over bananas and hazelnuts and place in refrigerator to cool completely and firm up.

Whipped Cream Topping:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon honey

Add all ingredients into a large bowl and whip until stiff peaks form.  Mound Whipped Cream Topping atop pie and serve immediately.  Refrigerate any leftovers.

Tower of TREATS Part 1 - Pie crust

Add butter to flour mixture

Mix until the size of sand.  

Mine?  More like small pebbles but that's how I roll.

Add the egg yolk and mix until forms a dough

RUTRO I was going to shell these last night.  I forgot.  I was so glad to have found Oregon Grown Hazelnuts.  Let the fun begin

In the meantime.... press the crust mixture into a 9 inch pie plate.  I only had a 10 inch pie plate hence the crust comes up a little short.  No worries, its how I roll (pun intended).  It ain't pretty.

Who knew?  Ok so transfer the hazelnuts into a ziplock type bag and get your HAMMER out (any ole' hammer will do).  Bet ya didn't think I'd be saying that?  I completely forgot about THIS.  It wasn't as bad as I was expecting in fact once I got started it was kind of fun.  They make this cute little popping noise.  I almost went out and got another bag.  Te-he. 

Dump them out onto a sorting station.  Separate out the nutmeats from the hard outer shells.  I felt kind of squirrely.  Might want to take care with this step unless of course you like your dentist.

There they are.

M.A.R.T.H.A

Second act.  For the caramel sauce

Bring those puppies to a bubbly boil and then turn down to a simmer for 15 minutes.  Whisk

and whisk

Remove crust after 10 minutes when lightly browned

Act 3 for the banana hazelnut filling

Roast the hazelnuts (I used 1 tsp of butter to help with this)

Make sure the butter doesn't burn

I think oven-roasting would be better.  

I kind of burned the butter.  It's my signature step

Ask ANYONE

Layer the slices of bananas and hazelnuts in that order.  

P.S. I added an additional banana making that a total of 3. 

It's how I roll.

Pour the carmel sauce over ALL.  

There is ample caramel so reserve the leftovers in a jar to use for the plate-up or for ice cream.

Ready for whipped cream topping!!!

Can't wait to try it.

Can I have a moment of silence?

Touch it and you die.  Tehe ,) 

I hope everyone has a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!