Every year we look forward to her creations and we're never disappointed. The Reindeer Cupcakes are a chocolate cake mix and then she added the decorations, with just a little help from a precious four year old.
A few of us were chatting about how creative she is and realized that we all talk a good game, but we're not so good at the follow through. Fortunately we get to look forward to her creations for every occasion. <big grin>
Sympathy cards are the hardest to make or buy. There is no way this little folded piece of paper can ever convey the feelings you want to send. We do the best we can.
I just had reason to have a sympathy card for a friend and this is what I came up with:
I like that it’s not overly glum, but at the same time it’s not a happy sunshine card either.
Inside of the card – a beautiful saying and I needed to put some lighter cardstock over the chocolate brown as there’s no way any writing would show up on this brown.
Supplies Used for Card: stamps are from the Close as a Memory set from Stampin’ Up; patterned paper from Basic Grey; ink is Tim Holtz Distress Ink… I believe Tea Dye
Last night I met a group of my girlfriends for our 1st Annual Christmas Party at Olive Garden. Good food, wonderful ladies and GIFTS – LOL! It was an incredibly wonderful evening.
Cindy, our organizer, is truly a gifted hostess. She had several games and activities ready for us and the evening was so much more than “just having dinner together,” though that too is a wonderful thing to do. When we first got to the restaurant she had a santa hat at each place setting and do you know each and every one of us wore them? So fun to have friends that don’t mind a little silly – even in public!
One of the moments that will always stand out in my memory is reading the story of Christ’s birth together. Cindy had little cards that each had a verse printed on them and she had us pass them around. Each person was to take 2 or 3 cards and we ready the verses in number order. I seriously got tears in my eyes listening to my cherished friends reading this story.
We also did our version of the “dirty santa” game. I made another fat quarter gift bag and found the cutest little ceramic gingerbread man measuring spoons at Pier 1.
Aren’t they they cutest?
When I got home last night I still had my santa hat on and Keith looked at me, chuckled, and said “looks like you had a really good time!” Yes… I really did!
This has seriously been the most relaxed, stress-free Christmas season that I can remember. In fact, Saturday I was able to enjoy the day with friends, even though Christmas is only two weeks away!
We had lunch at a place that reminded me of a tea room, though it really isn’t. We had paninis, chicken salad sandwiches and I had a sweet potato cupcake for dessert. Good food and good friends!
The front part of the place is a gift shop, so naturally there was some shopping afterwards. I needed to find an ornament to give to a friend at Sunday School the next day and was delighted to find one I thought she would like.
Now one of the reasons I wanted to share this isn’t so much for the story of my fabulous Saturday, but to point out how easy it would be to make this ornament since we are all about the crafting. The red ribbon was velvet, little rhinestones all around and I’ve seen the blingy letters at the craft stores.
So cute…. and she LOVED it!
I’ve said before and I’ll repeat it often – I *love* Pinterest and blogs for inspiration! So much creativity that everybody shares and then the not as creative types like me can recreate and enjoy with our families.
This particular item I’ve seen time and again and I finally took the 10 minutes – I kid you not – to sit down and make one. I like it enough that I’ll likely do one for every season.
A Christmas soap pump! So easy peasy and FAST to make. I used the big box store brand of hand soap and peeled off the front and back label. Next a bit of Goo Gone took off the remaining bits of glue so that there was a clean bottle to work with.
I used stickers with a clear background, but I don’t know that it’s any kind of requirement. And last a jaunty bow around the neck. I think I would prefer ribbon a bit less wide, but this is what I had in Christmas colors and didn’t want to buy any more. You can barely tell in the photo above, but I also put a star sticker on the top of the pump.
Ta da! Super fast and it makes me smile every time I go to wash my hands.
Now to watch for more 50% off sticker sales and get ready for the next season!
** Linking to Get Your Craft On, Take-A-Look Tuesday, Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, Topsy Turvy Tuesdays, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Inspired By You Wednesdays
‘Tis the season! Is your mind filled with gift buying/creating, wrapping and presenting? I <big puffy heart> gifts for my friends and family and love this time of year. My gifts might not always be the gift they’ve always wanted or the just perfect gift, but I guarantee it always comes from the heart.
So for the past few months I’ve been pinning all sorts of amazing ways to wrap gifts on my cleverly named Pretty Packages board on Pinterest. If you want more information on anything below just click on the photo to go to the original site. And leave them a comment letting them know how awesome they are. :)
Isn’t this bow simply gorgeous? The site has step-by-step instructions.
This gift wrapping is more subtle, but I think it would be especially awesome to match the map to the recipient’s favorite place – or dream vacation spot.
A different way to tie bows – from M. Stewart herself.
I encourage you to click through to this one – she has several gift wrapping ideas and they are just stunning. I look at the picture above and while vintage is the first word that comes to mind, I think genteel is also in there. Ladylike. Beautiful.
Of course a cute idea for the Littles – or my friend Dawn! This is so darling and looks to be so easy to do. Click around on her site and look at the rest of the Hello Kitty party she’s posted.
A little less formal – and wouldn’t they be fun stocking stuffers? Or maybe little gifts for office friends, neighbors, etc.?
I saw this on Pinterest and when I clicked over to the blog – well I’m the newest follower. Don’t you just love finding a blog that has the same taste on things that you do? Doesn’t mean I’ll get all this stuff done, but it sure is fun to look at their ideas!
Enjoy! And if you’re on Pinterest let me know so I can follow you!
A friend of mine had to have surgery and of course that means a card. I didn’t really find a stamp I liked among my many, so I started looking online at digital images to do a hybrid card.
I got the cutie pie turtle image and the heart in a set at Digiscrapkits and am so in love with her cute little face! I put it together in Photoshop Elements and typed in the saying. Printed it twice so that I could cut out the turtle again and put her on pop dots – of course adding some Stickles for some bling.
Hope the card brings a smile to my friend’s face!
Supplies Used for Card: Turtle and Heart from Turtle Crush 1 Clip Art; Copper Stickles; Spring Moss cardstock by Papertrey Ink; white ribbon Stampin’ Up
