Sunflowers & Dragonflies

Snowman Santa

This cute snowman thinks he can pull off playing Santa this year, but I don’t think it will be a wise idea because it gets awful warm in Australia at this time of year. The reindeer have a hard time handling the heat, and are working hard at convincing the snowman to stay where it is cold–Sarnia, Ontario. Did you see Detroit got a lot of snow over the weekend? My house is only one hour away, and we got a ton of snow too. I know so many of you got a lot of snow along with me. Keep warm.

Stamp is by Willowgrove. Designer paper is Basic Grey, and design for this card is from the Technique Junkie Newsletter.

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Charlie Brown’s Christmas & Rudolph

Christmas isn’t complete with a dose of Charlie Brown, so I thought I’d share some Charlie Brown with you. I watch the movie at least three times, and listen to the CD continuously. What makes your Christmas complete?

I’m also a huge fan of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and watch it at least twice during the holidays. I even have the soundtrack. My porcelain collection of characters are one of my favourites and are set up in a special spot of their own, and on my Christmas tree. Here’s a quick tune for you. Enjoy.

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Treat Boxes

Good morning. Do you have a busy weekend scheduled? Not only am I busy, I am looking forward to the new reveal for the Splitcoast Fan Club . I know I have said it before, but I love peaking into the extra gallery created by the best-of-the-best card artists. These artists are known as the Dirty Dozen, and on the 15th of each month, a new gallery is open to Fan Club members, where inspirational cards and paper art are displayed.

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Horsing Around

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Altered Notebook

This is a notebook I made for my son’s girlfriend. I’m having a lot of fun making her a lot of altered items for Christmas.

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Tutorial Tuesday – Rubber Stamped Christmas Cookies

Good Morning. Well, rubber stamped Christmas cookies was the winner in last week’s vote of what you would like to see. It was a small number who voted, but nonetheless, Christmas cookies is what you wanted to see. Listed below is a recipe for sugar cookies, and a link to a fondant recipe. Fondant came be purchased ready-made as well.

Roll out a small piece of fondant. Keep fondant wrapped in a ziploc bag at all times, and take out just enough fondant to do two cookies at a time.
Find suitable glassware the size of your cookie, and rotate onto fondant until the pieces are separated.

Your canvas is now ready to be turned into art.

Wash stamp with soap and water and dry completely. Push stamp into fondant until a deep impression is left.

Seen here are two ways to decorate the stamped fondant. 1) Add sprinkles around the stamped image, and 2) Paint indentations with liquid food colouring and decorate with candies.

The use of stamps in our daily lives seems endless. I hope this tutorial was helpful in making your decorated cookies special this year.

Sugar Cookies:
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup butter
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter

Mix sugar, butter, egg yolks and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking soda and cream of tarter. Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Cool completely

Fondant – click here for recipe.

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Christmas Wreath

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Fabulous

Wow, is it really Friday? I can’t believe how quickly Christmas is coming upon us. Today’s cards are what I like to use as a gift card holder. The flower is on a flap that opens, and then the card opens again in behind the top flap. It’s really quite neat. How did I obtain this pattern? Through the Technique Junkies newsletter. I have been a subscriber for a year, and recently signed up for two more years.

Here’s a peak at the inside of the card.

This Fabulous Flower stamp is so versatile. I love how it looks so Christmasy.

This afternoon I’m meeting up with another fabulous friend of mine–Christine (aka IrishChristine) whom I met over at the Stamp Shack. We like to get together to scrapbook and make cards. Today she is taking me to Archiver’s (in Michigan), where we are making a cute Christmas gift card holder, and to a few other scrapbook stores. Christine is such a wonderful friend, and I can’t wait to see her. We have lots of catching up to do. I’ll post some pics for you tomorrow.

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Sisterhood of the Travelling Altered Books

My life is blessed with wonderful family, and friends. I hang out with the neatest group of women, here in Sarnia. There is so much talent amongst us. We all have different personalities, yet we are the best of friends. It is our love for the art world that has brought us together. We originally got together once a month, for two years, to do a night project, or watch video tutorials, and at the end of the night we would exchange our altered books. Creations were prepared by a new person each month, and then the following month we would have show and tell where lots of “ooohhs” and “aaahhhs” could be heard as each book was displayed. Hence, the name “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Altered Books”, so named by Kim. Today, we get together as often as possible. Sometimes it is over dinner or drinks, a house party, or shopping. There is no end to the projects we come up with. This past summer Carol & Sharon made the cutest planters with chicken wire and the oldest chairs they could find.

Life has been hard for me over the past couple of years, and my girlfriends have been there to support me. They don’t judge me for cancelling out at the last minute, or if I don’t show up. They don’t judge me when I’m down, or when I talk way too much. I love my girlfriends, and treasure them dearly.

This week we got together for a Christmas party. We missed one member, Kim, who was busy studying for exams. Our Christmas present to each other was a booklet of tags, held together with a ring and decorative ribbon. Each lady made a tag with a personal picture and advice to their younger self. The idea for hosting this swap came about by way of the the Stamp Shack, where I was in a swap like this, hosted by Ethel. It was so much fun, I decided to host this swap so I could have more tags.

Here I am at two years old, while I lived in Germany, where my father was stationed with the 1 RCR (Royal Canadian Regiment). My advice is to be who you are! Find an incredible group of ladies to share your hobbies with, and treasure that friendship. Don’t think that moving from house to house, or province to province will solve your problems. Face them. Dance like no one is watching. Lighten up a little. (Deep, eh?)

Carol’s unique style of tag offers up the statement, “it’s not about the amount of challenges in Your life–it’s about how YOU handle them–one day at a time.

Cathy, who is a self-taught Photoshop pro, depicts her older self in a tent talking to her young self. Cathy reports her life as “It’s a Wonderful Life” then adds, “I wouldn’t change one moment, good or bad, because it brought me to be the person I am today and I really like who I am. Our one dream did come true, only in miniature. Oh, and by the way, Prince Charming came on a motorcycle, not a horse.”

Kathy’s pretty-in-pink advice is: be joyful always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances.

Sharon’s angelic tag has wonderful, and whimsical, advice: When I grow up I’ll eat snow and make snow angels. Jump in puddles and make mudpies. Go to the creek by myself. Catch tadpoles. Keep them till they’re frogs. Walk barefoot on the grass and beach, wade in the water, get covered in sand. Have tea with my friends, and dinner too, and talk all night if we want. Collect moss and bark and stones and shells, and rusty metal things. I’ll feed the birds and give them string. I’ll lay on the grass on summer nights and watch for bats and learn the names of ALL the stars. I’ll have every colour crayon. I’ll draw on walls. An pink popsicles will always be in my fridge.

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Tutorial Tuesday – Jacob’s Ladder Christmas Card & Gift Card Holder

Good morning. Today’s tutorial came about by my need to make Christmas presents for my four nephews. This two panel Jacob’s ladder will amaze the recipient when they open it up. When it is opened like a book, the gift card is on one side, and when it is opened from the back cover, the gift card magically appears on the opposite side. I’m a grown up and I still get tickled when I play around with it, so I can imagine how young children will feel. And the best part? It’s hand made with TLC.

Supplies:

2 – Mat board cut into 4″ x 4″
2 – Paper of choice cut into 4″ x 4″
3 – 8″ lengths of double sided ribbon
pencil
eraser
double sided tape
glue stick

Mat board 1F – pattern side up
Decorative paper 2 F – wrong side up
Mat board 1 B – wrong side up
Decorative paper 2 B – wrong side up

Draw lines on the wrong side of the paper 3/4″ in from the top and bottom, and at the 2″ mid way point.

Using 1 B, lay wrong side up and lay ribbons as shown. Glue with glue stick.

Take 1 F (cover) and glue the wrong side to wrong side. Set one is now complete.

Flip book over so the single piece of ribbon is situated to the left.

Place 2F wrong side up, to the right of finished set.

Glue ribbon to 2F. Trim ribbon.

Slip the remaining ribbons up through the slit in between the two sets as seen in this photo.

Fold the two ribbons over to the left.

Using double sided sticky tape, fold the ribbon from the left up over onto 2B, pulling taut. Next (not photographed), take double sided sticky tape and place it around the circumference of 2 B and sandwich the two wrong sides together.

Once you have sandwiched your ends together, this is what your Jacob’s ladder will look like.

You are now ready to decorate the outer edges as desired. Because these are for Christmas, I turned them into Christmas cards. Do you recognize Crab & Co decorated up as Sandy Claws?

This cute snowman, by Hero Arts, is paired up with die cuts from my Cricut (And I said I’d never use the machine. Good thing Donnie doesn’t listen to me).

This tutorial was a challenge to put together. How can we make up for this? Please leave a comment with a link to your card, or e-mail a copy. I really would like to see at least one person try this out. Please? Call it an early Christmas present.

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