Card purses

I found these adorable Card Purses on Splitcoaststampers News and knew I had to try them. Sister Jan has three nieces who are with us on Christmas, so I always like to give them a little token something. I used CTMH Jingle paper pack along with CTMH Posterboard Alphabet. I used my Nesties to cut the circles. I used Stickles on the inside of the letters for the girls names for the required girly bling! Ribbon and flowers are unknown from my stash. I'll get some nail polish and candies and put in the purses for each girl. And while they are *supposed* to be used for cards, I would think that the possibilities for uses would be endless, so long as the items aren't too big or heavy!

Gift Card Holders

I needed some gift card holders for Christmas. And I can't just put them in a card! What would people think?! Every year it gets harder for me to come up with a new idea to house the gift cards.

This year I pulled out some of my round coasters and using CTMH Jingle paper pack, I covered them and inked all the edges in Juniper ink. Santa is from Magical Season and he was colored using my Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. He's got Liquid Applique on his hat and Diamond Stickles on the stars and his beard. The gift stamp is from Jingle Borders.

And on a totally unrelated note, we got 4.5" of rain yesterday! A nice, steady, all day soaking rain. We didn't get enough rain over the summer to bring our totals back to normal, so I was very encouraged to hear that we would be in an El Nino pattern this winter. Basically that means a wetter than normal winter for us. Anything we get that helps bring the water table up to where it shoud be works for me!

CPS challenge

I FINALLY got the last of my Christmas gifts finished up yesterday, so now I can move on! Still bothered by the nerve pain in my mouth. Not a whole lot else to say about that! It is what it is. I'm learning to just deal with it. Not that I've got a whole lot of other options in my arsenal!

Another great sketch at http://www.cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com/ this week. And since I've still got the new CTMH promo Felicity pp sitting next to my table, that's where I went! I tried to stay with a monochromatic pallette with this one. I only used three colors of ink; CTMH Autumn Terracotta, Bamboo and Cocoa. The circle is discontinued CTMH Twill Stickstock that I random stamped with one of my Technique Tuesday flourish stamps to try and match the flourish on the background B&T paper.

Bags and Tags

Trying very hard to work thru the mouth pain and get my hand-made Christmas gifts done this week. I need to move on to other things and the only way I can do that is to just work thru the pain. I keep hoping that this morning will be the morning I wake up and the bone has grown enough to cover the exposed nerves. But so far, this morning hasn't come. But you didn't come here to listen to me complain!

I make cards every year to give both of my sisters and mom as well as my hair and nail gals. They look forward to recieving them every year and I enjoy coming up with new and different ideas to make them. I also come up with some sort of "holder" for the cards. This year I decided to buy plain white gift bags and alter them in non-Christmassy papers so that they could re-use them later on in the year. I used some of an old CTMH promo pack called Tickled Pink. Each bag is just slightly different with flowers and colors used.

For my tags this year, I stayed traditional, using CTMH Jingle paper pack. The ribbon is Making Memories (I think!) from a few years ago as is the puffy sentiment on the tag.

Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful day at sister Jan's yesterday. In addition to both of my sisters and their families and my mom, we had 3/4's of bil John's family as well as sister Kathy's mother and father in law. Not that there was any worry that there wouldn't be enough food! But of course I had to be my smart @ss self and tell Kathy's in laws that I really wish they'd pick up a bucket of chicken or a pizza next time before they came!

We had turkey AND ham, garlic mashed taters with eleventy billion kinds of cheese in it. I was assured that all calories had been removed! There was Mom's Famous Squash Casserole (she didn't make it one year and bil John informed her that if she didn't make it in the future, not to bother to come! It's her "pass go" card!), cranberry relish, my Famous lemon juice and soy sauce marinated asparagus, baked pineapple "stuff" (cuz I can never remember what it's REALLY called!) corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, three types of bread/rolls, tossed salad (because Kathy thought we might not have enough food otherwise!), stuffing. There's more, but I don't remember and I have no pictures to guide me because somebody (read ME) forgot to take her camera. @@ There was apple pan dowdy (like an apple crumb cake for you Yankees!) made by Kathy and I made a Peanut Butter & Chocolate pie for dessert. There was much moaning and groaning and belt-letting-out after we ate and most were looking for a quiet place to sit and digest. But with our rowdy crew, there's not much chance in that! You are quickly found and picked on by others around you. But isn't that what being with family's all about?!

So this morning, I needed a couple of quick Thank You cards. I pulled out the Felicity paper pack and stamp set once again to do these cards. I also shamelessly lifted the card idea pretty much lock, stock and barrel from CTMH Wishes Idea Book and is called Simple Statements.

CPS challenge

Needed a really quick card to take with me to the Thanksgiving feast at Jan's later today, so I turned to http://www.cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com/ for my inspiration!

I pulled out an old CTMH Promotion paper pack that I have eleventy-billion packs left of called Serendipity and the accompanying stamp set to make this card. This is one of my all-time favorite paper packs. Which is why I've got eleventy-billion packs of it! I ordered the crap-ola out of it!! The flower is pop-dotted for some visual interest.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Safe travels to one and all.

Look what the mailman brung!

My friend Jill out in California-land sent me a "feel better" package. She knows how much I love everything that the Temecula Olive Oil Company has to offer, so she got some Lemon Verbena Olive Butter (for the skin) and sent, and man does that stuff smell GOOD and make your skin feel sooooo soft! She also sent along the Sonoma Farm Hope Stoopid Ale that she forgot to bring when she came to visit this past summer. I've been known to spell stupid "Stoopid" when talking about really stoopid people or events and she said as soon as she saw it, she knew she had to get some for me. And I must confess, I wasn't crazy about the beer itself, but the empty bottle will have a place of honor on my shelves. She also made a beautiful Asian inspired card to make me feel better from all of the mouth troubles that are STILL going on. It's the exposed nerves that are giving me fits. I can't wait til the new bone finally gets in gear and starts growing to cover them. Thank you my friend!