The Year In Review

Hi, again!

I hope everyone had a wonderful & safe Christmas!  It's hard to believe it is over again for another year.  It seems to sneak up on me every year & I never feel like I am really ready for it.  But somehow, it all comes together, everyone gets here, the food gets made and the presents wrapped.

I've noticed a lot of my fellow bloggers & friends are doing a short review of the past year & since I enjoyed theirs so much, I thought I would do a short one as well.  Here are some of my favorites.

I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane.  Catch you later with some new ones!  Stay warm & safe!

Sherri 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I want to take this time to wish everyone a very, Merry Christmas!  I had thought I would be posting again before Christmas, and my still find time yet to post, but it's looking more doubtful by the minute. Like all of you, I have been busy getting ready for Christmas and trying to get all those last minute things taken care of.  I've made Reindeer Chow, Christmas Crack, Powdered Sugar Drops and the pretzel/Hershey Kiss/M & M candies so far.  I want to do one more batch of the Christmas Crack and a pan of brownies and then I think I am finally done.

In all the hustle & bustle of the season, I hope we all remember what we are REALLY celebrating!  Safe travels to all of you who are traveling or who have loved ones who are.

Sherri

Christmas Thank You

Hello, again!

It's been a busy couple of days here.  Since I am retired this year, I decided I would finally have time to do some baking.  I also haven't decided on exactly what I will be serving Christmas Eve so I wanted to check out the recipes on Pinterest. What a mistake!!  My head is swimming with pictures of all the wonderful food that is posted there!  I've printed out recipes for Christmas Crack, Snowball cookies, Reindeer Chow & a White Queso Dip that has my mouth watering.  I haven't even gotten to the main course recipes yet!  I have one dish I absolutely LOVE, but it contains hamburger and since my sister & brother-in-law won't eat beef, and my nephew's wife is vegetarian, I have to come up with something everyone will like.  If it was up to me, I would be happy "grazing" through the Christmas cookies, candy and dips for dinner!

I did manage to set aside some time to make some Christmas thank you cards between browsing Pinterest boards. I went with an embossing folder from Darice that I picked up this fall & that has rapidly become one of my favorites. I've used it for birthday cards as well as Christmas cards already & I'm really hoping they have a similar version in spring flowers that I can pick up when the weather warms up.

I still like that personal touch of sending a handmade card, even for thank you's! I stamped a sentiment with a Studio G stamp, added some holly leaves with a Marianne Designs die and finished it off with some sparkle for the berries.  For the inside, I added another white layer with a snowflake punched out of the corner.

I hope you are all done with your cards too!  Christmas is coming faster than you think!

Enjoy the day & I'll catch you later.

Sherri

The Last Tree!

Hi, all!

I hope you are enjoying this weekend and you have all your shopping done!  I was planning to work on a card this afternoon, but got side tracked.  I had one more tree form sitting on my desk staring at me. The poor little thing looked so bare..........I just had to make it happy!

Instead of the flowers made from paperbacks I did previously, I decided to go with bright Christmas paper instead.  I meant to spray it with Tim Holtz Pearl Glimmer Mist prior to taking the photograph, but forgot. I'll do that next to give it that beautiful glittery shine.  What a difference color makes!! 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend! 

Sherri 

Got the marshmallows!

Happy Friday the 13th!

I hope everyone had a safe & happy Friday the 13th!  To me, they are all pretty much the same, but I know a lot of people are really superstitious.

On my last post, I promised I was working on something to share, but was waiting on marshmallows.  Well, I managed to get them yesterday & here is why I needed them.

I found this cute stamp set in my Christmas drawer & decided I would make a few stocking stuffers. Who doesn't love hot chocolate and especially if the marshmallows are already included in the mix! This was an Inky Antics stamp set perfect for my project. Too bad they don't have individual marshmallow cream containers or I would have added those instead.  For MY hot chocolate, I prefer marshmallow cream! Lots & lots of it! 

I also wanted to get a head start on a card I need to get in the mail around Christmas. My cousin's husband is having a birthday  January 1st so I decided to combine a birthday card with a Happy New Year card. I had to cut out the Happy New Year sentiment on this Mo Manning digi to add my typed sentiment.

He is also having surgery the end of the month, so I wanted to keep this card pretty light-hearted.

Have a great weekend!  We are supposed to get snow tonite & again tomorrow morning.  YUK! Sounds like a good time to hibernate!

Catch you all later!
Sherri

Play Day..

Hi, all!

I hope you are all staying warm! I think it got up to 7 degrees today, but it certainly didn't feel even that warm outside.   And hearing that this is record cold for December doesn't make me feel any warmer either!

There were a lot of things I intended to do today.  Intended, being the key word here!  Somehow I made the mistake of turning the computer on to check for emails this morning, and the rest is history.  Top Dog Dies was having their first blog hop.  Hmmmm!  When I worked, I never had time to do a blog hop & visit all the different sites.  I thought I would just take a quick peek.....well, one peek led to another peek and before you knew it, I was merrily hopping along.  And a good thing too!  One of the gals I stopped at (Michelle Neddo) had made adorable snowflake ornaments for her hop stop.  I immediately started thinking of all the snowflake dies I had & wondering what else I could try this on.  Well, let me show you!

The snowflake turned out so cute I tried the same thing with a cute Cherry Lynn tree die.  My first attempt is on the right.  I thought it would be smart to back it with a solid white so the ornament would be more stable. Well, had I thought about it longer, I would have realized that without another green tree on the back of the white backing, some of the sides would just be all white & ugly.  Plan B...forget about the backing & just do the trees without it.  I'm blaming my lack of foresight on lack of coffee.  ha ha I've been making half a pot & putting it in a thermos so I don't have to keep going back downstairs for refills. Need a Plan B for that too! My thermos broke yesterday so I'm going to be forced to dig out my old one tomorrow.  One cup in the morning is NOT enough!

I'm working on another project that I hope to be able to share tomorrow.  I need miniature marshmallows first & it was just too darned cold to go out for them today. Bet you are wondering, now aren't you?

Catch you later!
Sherri

Christmas continues

Hi,

Happy Monday!  How quickly the weeks are passing.  Christmas will be here before we know it!  I finished the last of my cards today & should have them in the mail tomorrow.  I even did an extra one to post to Splitcoast Stampers to honor my friend Gail, who is Queen for the week there.

This card was done with a digi from Sweet & Sassy Stamps.  It's not something I would normally do, but to case a card she had done, I thought I would go out of my comfort zone.  I'm not big on birds.  At least not on cards!  I colored this little guy with my Prismacolor brush markers & cut him out with a Marianne Designs Oval. The lace to the right is a Spellbinder Layered Elegant Swirl and the swirl to the left is from another Marianne Designs Circle Frame.  The pine cone is from Impression Obsession. The gold foil paper was from my stash.

For those of you who were curious about the Tim Holtz snowflake rosettes I have been making, I tried taking a shot of one on my tree.  I was hoping all the lights were going to show up, but you probably need greater photography skills than mine!  ha ha  I probably should have turned the flash off.

Aren't they cute hanging on a tree?  And the best part of all is you can make them from any paper and color you like.  And they are unbreakable!!

Well, I think I hear a snack calling my name!  Catch you all later!
Sherri

I'm on a roll!

Hi, all!

Hopefully, you are having a relaxing weekend and you are all keeping warm & safe.  I think we have to admit that winter has finally arrived, hasn't it?  Darn!!

Well, I'm still on a roll with step cards.  I'm having so much fun doing them that I had to make two more.  One is a Christmas card for someone special and the other is a birthday card for my brother-in-law. His birthday isn't until January, but for the first time in over 40 years, I was late sending his card last year.  This year, I intend to be ready!  ha ha

This first card is the Christmas card I made using one of the QKR Stampede digi stamps.  They were having a wonderful sale the other day & all their digi stamps were $1....I thought I showed enormous control in only getting five!  I loved this little grumpy looking bear carrying his Christmas tree & knew he would have to be a step card.

I thought I would add a little lattice fence from Die-Namics and decorate it with a string of lights from Cheery Lynn.  The cabin & Merry Christmas are Memory Box and the trees in the background are from Ellentine cutting dies. The small snowflakes are Impression Obsession.

On to the birthday card!  This was made with another $1 digi from QKR Stampede. Since my brother-in-law is an avid cross country skier, I thought this would be perfect!

The birch trees are from Memory Box. The moose & squirrel were from Hugware and the Happy Birthday sentiment was from a set my daughter got me years ago & unfortunately it has no name on it.  I added white glitter paper for the snow hills & popped up the skier with pop dots.

The last card is just a quick one I made to try out a new die my daughter sent me.

I used a Darice embossing folder for this one and the dies are from Tim Holtz.  Quick & simple.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.  Catch you later!
Sherri

More Snowflakes

Hi, all!
I hope wherever you are, it is much warmer than here!  The outside temperature right now is only 7 degrees, but with the wind chill it feels like 7 below.  And in the next couple of days, the air temperature will BE below zero!  With 3-6 inches of snow for the weekend.......How many more days until spring???

I tried some additional versions of the cute snowflakes this morning.  Instead of doing them all in white (which is what I wanted for MY tree) I made some in blues too.  In fact, I also got creative & cut 2 of them from white which I then added some washi tape to.The 2 on the right in the last row were done with the tape.

Continuing the snowflake theme, I did 2 cards also.  The first (and the only one of them I liked) was done with a snowflake embossing folder and a Martha Stewart snowflake border punch.  I loved the way it came out!

I also added the snowflake border to the inside.

This was my last snowflake card.  I embossed the top layer with snowflakes after cutting out a snowflake with one of my dies. I'm guessing this one will be in the bottom of my ("these will never see the light of day" drawer).  I think we all have a place where card duds go to hide don't we?  ha ha

Have a great Friday!  And stay warm!!
Sherri

Mailbox Treasures!

Hi, all!

If you are like me, the mailbox is usually full of either bills or junk mail. Yesterday, and today, however, my mailbox was a treasure trove! Yesterday I got a surprise package from one of my blog friends with a set of Christmas stamps and a die!  Both of them are awesome & I have already made 2 cards with the stamps. I didn't have the stamps or the die & both are fabulous!

This is the first card. When I saw the size of the stamps, I immediately thought of a snow globe stamp I have & knew they would be the perfect size! I've never had stamps the right size to use with it before so have never really used it.  These were absolutely perfect!  Santa is from my new stamp set by Inkadinkado and the globe is from my old one by Penny Black. I popped the globe up with pop dots and added the sentiment using a Spellbinder die.  Stickles for a touch of glitter, of course!!  These stamps are just perfect!!

This is the 2nd card I made with both sets of stamps.  I added a Merry Christmas sentiment with a die from Cheery Lynn.  Stickles for glitter on this one too!  You can never have enough glitter!!

Then today's mail contained a Tim Holtz die from my daughter which is an early Xmas present.  It is a snowflake rosette and I can tell you right now, there are 6 of them laying on my desk that will go on my tree once I go downstairs tonight!  They cut in one strip, you glue them together & glue on the side snowflake. Simple to make & already scored for folding so you can make them in literally a couple of minutes! Perfect!

Aren't they gorgeous!  And while I was typing this, my daughter just emailed to say she has also sent another snowflake so I'm sure I will be back with more awesomeness to share in the next day or two!  Wow!  I'm having a good week, ladies!  Even if it is going to be 11 below zero tonite & the wind is howling!  I bet you can guess who will be watching out the window for the mailman tomorrow!!  They would be great in colors too, but since I have a lot of white ornaments on my tree, I stayed with white.

Have a great day!  Catch you all later!