Boxing Week special from me to you....

In the spirit of the season, I am offering a Boxing Week Special! We have a new mini launching on Jan 4th, and once again Stampin UP has outdone themselves. There are so many lovely new stampsets, paper, fabric, buttons and more. In the last mini they offered 3 colours of the new Seam Binding ribbon. This is fantastic to work with, and now with the the new mini, there are 7 colours of ribbon.

Here is the special. For $10.00 you will receive 1 yard of each of the 7 colours, along with a sample pack of the Springtime Vintage paper.

For local gals, we can arrange a pick up/delivery. For my long distance customers, there will be a fee of $2.50 for shipping. Payment can be made by email money transfer, cash or cheque.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did, tons to eat, and being together with family and friends are truly gifts to cherish all year long.

The Reason For the Season

Luke 2:1-38 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor in Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David.) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

2-4-6-8-who do we appreciate?

At this time of year none other than Santa Claus is the focus on many minds. While Jesus is the Reason for the Season, it is still Santa Claus who continues to capture our imaginations and our hearts this time of the year.
There are great tutorials out there, but check out the one here if you need a good visual.

These boxes are so simple. Here are the directions: 1 - 5 1/2” x 8 1/2” piece card stock (you will get 2 boxes from one piece of paper.)
Paper trimmer with scoring blade or ruler with bone folder
Red line tape or a good tacky glue.
Scissors
From short side of card stock, score lines at 2”, 4”, 6”, and 8”, leaving 1/2” for
flap. Score from one long side of card stock at 2”.
Cut on lines from bottom edge to scored edge. Remove small corner piece.
Place red line tape on side flap and on one of the flaps that will be the bottom
most flap when it is folded.
Fold on bottom score line and on all side fold lines. Adhere side flap behind opposite side, fold all bottom flaps in with flap with tape last. Adhere.

Good Morning Cupcake

Looking out my window it is a winter wonderland. The sun is making periodic appearances, and turning the snow to diamonds. I love this kind of day. Next week at this time we will unwrapping gifts, and munching on cinnamon buns, but today I clean and prepare!

This little cupcake box how-to was generously shared by Becky Roberts. She is amazingly talented. Be sure to check out her blog it is worth a visit. The tutorial for the box is here. Her directions are very easy to follow, and if you have made boxes before, you won't have a bit of trouble putting these together.

For the ribbon topper (not stampin up)I pulled a wire on one side of the ribbon and turned it into the little rosette. Another layer of ribbon was added, then I put them together with a glitter brad. The cupcake holder is from the Table Settings die for the big shot....I know I will get tons of use out of this die. A glitter ornament completes this little hostess gift.

Have a wonderful week leading up to Christmas. We are picking up Grandma tomorrow, and she is visiting for a week. She will join our family festivities next weekend as we gather to Celebrate the Reason for the Season.

Decor elements

Good Snowy Morning...well, here is another cold, cold day, and wow, another blast from Mother Nature yesterday. There are over 300 people stuck in cars on the 402, just west of here. We were pretty much spared yesterday, but those who escaped last week, got blasted.

Here is a very quick and easy Christmas gift. I added a little decor element to the front of the Dollar store frame. Inside, I added some fun designer paper, made a bow, attached it with some hot glue, and there you go. These make wonderful hostess gifts, or a nice little extra to tuck in someone's stocking. Tons of people have shown these on their blogs, but credit goes to Diana Gibb. She has a fun blog, with wonderful inspiration. Check it out!!! See how she added a cute button to hers, well, after I took my picture, I did the same thing!

Drive safe friends, the roads can be a bit tricky. No buses for the kids again...wish I rode the bus, then I could have a snow day too!!!

It's a snowman building kind of day...

The weather has turned very mild today. However, we are bracing for another storm tomorrow. Hopefully it will pass over quickly, I am off on Monday, and I need to do some Christmas shopping.

This little snowman is the same pattern as the Santa's from a couple of days ago. I used very vanilla, ran it through the northern reflections embossing folder, dirtied him up with a little sponging...and now he hangs proudly on the tree.

Drive safe, stock up on your essentials...and take time to make something special. have a great weekend everyone.

Peaceful Wishes

This is one of my favourite cards of all time, and I am happy to give credit to Amy who was the original designer. I covered my embossing folder with craft ink, then ran it through my Big Shot...gives such a nice distressed look. Easy clean up with some mild soap, and run it under the tap.

It really does look like a winter wonderland here. We have alot of snow. However, not as much as Lucan. Check out this link to see the piles and piles of snow. It is snowing again now, but schools and buses and everything should be back to normal tomorrow.

Drive safe.

Triangle Santa Ornaments

Ok, I promise next year I will host an ornament event. There are just so many creative people out there sharing their ideas, and since I have been home for 2 snow days, I did have some time to play.

These Santa ornaments are so easy to make. The original idea is from a demo Linda Creech. These are her instructions...easy peasy! Simple directions as follows: 3 pieces of cs 3 3/4" x 3 3/4", score each diagonally, run through embossing folder, using sticky strip adhere each edge to a folded edge(forming a tree or cone shape). Now create the head using different SU punches! Mine are spritzed with the hairspray/shimmer paint mixture, and look so cute hanging on the tree. There are some snowman friends waiting to join the Santa but not quite finished those yet.

We have never had so much snow...it is a true record. London has closed down, no buses, asking people to stay off the roads. Since I work for a bank, it is important to be there for our customers, so we are delaying opening till 9, then business as usual. It is still snowing here, quite hard in fact, but there should be less traffic than usual, so shouldn't be a problem to get to work and find parking. My daughter Meaghan is snowed in, her car is buried under snow, so after work, I am picking her up, we will get her car over the weekend.

Have a fun day, drive safe, and if you are at home, try making one of these little Santa ornaments.

What it looks like after 2 days of snow....

Right now the wind is howling, the snow is falling, and the flakes are HUGE. It is a total white out! This is day 2, and the outlook is for MORE SNOW! Crazy. Within a very few miles, they have no snow! Schools, banks, buses, malls...they are all closed. Here are a few pics of what it looks like after 2 full days and nights of snow.

We have a huge open field behind our house. In the one photo you can see the woods, in the other you can see how hard it is snowing and that the woods are totally lost in the snow.

Safe travels to those on the road, and if you don't need to go anywhere, stay home! I hear nap time calling!!!

Look at all that snow! Wrap it up with a bow!

WOW, we had a record snow fall yesterday, my Hubby is out blowing out the drive way for the 3rd time in less than 24 hours. The schools, the university, pretty much everything is still closed as more snow is expected today. Wish I could stay home again, however, the roads are plowed so off I go.

Yesterday we did get the tree decorated, and then pretty much chilled and enjoyed being home for the day. I stumbled across a great way to tie bows, and just had to share. The templates I made are so easy using the white backing from the dsp, however, a cereal box would work just fine as well. If you struggle with getting your bow just right, be sure to watch this video, then make you own template. Just leave a space in the template, and make sure your "flaps" are equal in size. Once you watch the video it will be clear.

I am also including a link to the "fork" bow. Talk about easy, and it follows the same premise as the first video. Be sure to give them a try, and let me know how it goes.

If you are off today, enjoying the snow, have fun. Drive safe for those who are travelling.

Paper crafts meet Cake Pops!

Happy Saturday. This is a very exciting day for the gals in our family, as we are going out tonight for my niece Kaitlan's staggette. We all have our ugliest sweaters, and after a pot luck supper, taking the bus to Cowboys...a great bar in London.

There is a bit of a competition for creating the best costume, and making fabulous food, so we decided to try something new: Cake pops. Check out Bakerella for videos and tons of ideas. They really are very easy. Bake a cake in a 9x13 pan, as directed. Once it has cooled slightly, crumble into a big bowl and add a can of icing. Mix, roll in balls, then dip in your chocolate covering. For our pops, we made them into peacocks. Kaitlan and Gerrit love peacocks, so we thought it appropriate to make a little treat with that in mind.

All I did was punch out a large scallop circle, score and cut them out. I punched some mini dots, layered them on, and there you have it.

We also made some reindeer pops as well!

I am post dating this post, so no one gets a sneak peak of our creations!!! If you are my friend on facebook, watch tomorrow...I will post all the pictures of our fun night out!

Happy crafting...

I am trying something new....

Sure hope this works! There is an option to "post date" a posting, so I am giving it a try. Perhaps if I take advantage of this option, my posts will be more frequent, as I can do a batch and set them to pop up on a daily basis! So here goes.

This awesome Santa was made by a fellow demo, and I have totally "lifted" it from the Demo website. Susie, gives full credit to another demo, Patty Lee for the idea. Thanks Ladies, I need to make some gift card holders for my Mom, and I think this cute Santa will do the trick!

There is a die for Big Shot that will make the boxes in a snap, however, I am also linking this tutorial from SplitcoastStampers, so you can make your own little bitty box.

We got our first dusting of snow, so I am starting to feel the spirit of Christmas making it's way into our home. The real tree is going up tomorrow, and with that, Christmas will be official in our house. Have a great weekend, and let me know if you have a chance to copy your own Santa!