Let it Snow!

The view from our office window....................................

I love the snow! There's snow forecast for the entire weekend here and I woke up to a thin layer of snow in our backyard. Our family loves to go sledding and both Joe and Alex enjoy skiing so we're always excited when the snow starts falling. We don't have many good places to go sledding in the Ramstein area, which means we invariably end up in Garmisch at some point in the season to hit our favorite sledding spots. Have a lovely weekend!

School pics from a proud mommy

I know all mamas out there are prejudiced regarding their children, as they should be, thinking their kids are the smartest, the handsomest, best kids in the world but I have some wonderful children! They aren't perfect but I've been extremely blessed with two beautiful, fun-loving children and I just had to share my son's school photo. This is one of his best school photos ever, showing his sweet personality and that cute dimple on his left cheek! Of course, we won't mention the teenager who forgot to bring her photo packet home and now has to have photos done somewhere else...ahem, I think I mentioned something about my kids not being perfect?! Ha!

Deja Moo!

Last month my sweet hubby recruited a couple of ladies to help him throw me a surprise party at our church. It was so much fun! One of my absolute favorite games to play is Bunco but it's difficult to get a crowd of 12 or more to play. Well, we had enough to play and I had one of the best birthdays ever. I didn't take a picture but my birthday cake was an enormous sheet cake meticulously piped in a black and white cow pattern, complete with pink udders on the bottom! Anyhoo, in case those visiting my blog haven't figured it out, I'm into cows :) The cows I collect have personality, with distinctive character and are rather kitschy: no dollar store cow figurines for me! In my dining room, I have my own "cow gallery" of postcards, pictures, etc. of all things cow and my dear friend Marilyn designed and made this fabulous cross-stitch cow for my birthday this year. The saying says, "Deja Moo: That feeling that you've heard this bull before." What a hoot! I'm sure all of you reading this are terribly excited about the latest addition to my cow collection (not!) but I just had to share. Enjoy!

Embossed Ceramic Jar

As usual, the pics aren't the greatest but I'm working on getting a new camera and a photo tent for Christmas, with lots of hints to the hubby!

Once a month a few local Stampin' Up! demonstrators get together to encourage each other, share some goodies, and craft. Now that's my idea of a good time! We each take turns sharing a project and this lovely embossed jar was featured by Donna Way (thank you, Donna!) as our project this month. The pictures don't do the embossing on the top justice, since you can't really see the raised detail and the sparkly irridescent ice finish. Here's a few tips Donna shared with us to help complete the project:

*When embossing on ceramic, make sure the surface is clean before stamping your image.
*For embossing with color, stamp your image in Versamark and then Classic ink to create the colored pigment needed to emboss.
*Have a towel handy for wiping the ink off in case you make a mistake when stamping.
*The surface is slick so have a steady hand when stamping to preserve the detail of your image.
*While heating on a ceramic surface, the image will take more time to melt so have patience and allow the image to fully cool before touching.
*If you make a mistake when heating the image, use your fingernail or a Pampered Chef stone scrubber to remove the image and start over.

Happy stamping!



Supplies: SU! Winter Post stamp set, SU! Ski Slope Designer Series paper, SU! Baja Breeze cardstock, SU! Chocolate Chip classic ink, Versamark, Irridescent Ice embossing powder, American Crafts stitched ribbon, chocolate brown twine, Scor-tape, SU! tag punches, ceramic jar.

Christmas Advent Calendar-in-a-Bag

Two years ago I purchased a bag similar to this one and created a "kid friendly" set for my kids for Christmas and they absolutely loved it! Each night in December they took turns opening a bag from the Advent Calendar-in-a-Bag and shared whatever was in the bag (I put enough for two in each bag so there was no fighting!). I decided to create a simple version for a class and this is what I came up with. We had the class at my house last night, which I tried "production" style with everyone completing different portions of the bag for the entire group rather than working on their bags individually. The white glassine bags, which are German fruhstuck (breakfast) bags, are a good size for putting several small items or one mid-size item and can be altered for any age and interest. This would make a terrific gift for a crafter: each bag containing small embellishments, tags, card candy, adhesive, stickers, and more! If you don't want to put candy in the bags for kids, try small things like cards, cars, balls, or crayons. Creating 24 bags and finding treats to put in them can be time consuming but imagine the delight you can bring someone for each day leading up to Christmas!

Supplies: Cub Kraft bags (Packaging Source), SU! Ski Slope Designer paper, SU! Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and Whisper White cardstock, SU! Real Red and Old Olive markers, SU! Chocolate Chip ink, Merry Christmas stamp from SU! retired Painted Poinsettias stamp set, SU! Winter Post stamp set, Oriental Trading typed alphabet stamp set, American Crafts chocolate stitched ribbon, Listmann's chocolate twine, glassine bags, Marvy Uchida Super Jumbo Tag, SU! slot, designer label, scallop, hand-held circle and 3/4" circle punches, dimensionals, adhesive, SU! clear embossing powder, Versamark, embossing gun, and 1/4" Scor-tape.

Move over, Vanessa Hudgens!

Alex and a few of her friends plotted at church last Sunday and convinced me to take them to see High School Musical 3 between services. It isn't the most intellectual of movies but we still had a great time! Jordan spent the afternoon at a friend's house so Joe opted to go with us and he barely managed to endure all the girlie talk in the car. In my viewpoint, it's a good way for me to know what's going on with Alex and her friends but Joe can only handle so much before he needs manly bonding. Anyway, I convinced Alex to let me snap this photo of her with Zac Efron...poor Vanessa doesn't even know Alex is moving in for the kill :)

Another Stationery Box

This past weekend I demonstrated the Stationery Box to my Sunday stamp club and while this project is labor intensive, it's worth it in the end! I originally got the tutorial from Jackie Topa on (you guessed it!) Splitcoaststampers, with the link posted in a previous blog entry. The colors and style of the designer series paper "Parisian Summer" by Stampin' Up! are not my typical choices but I rather liked the paper once I began to play with it. There were several guests at the club this month who were "virgin" stampers and I felt badly that they might have been intimidated by such a lengthy project the first time out but they rallied and did well for having so much thrown at them. Hopefully I didn't scare them away from stamping!

I'm still not sure that I like the embellishment on the outside. I admire the work of Beate Johns and tried to layer this in a similar fashion. I'm still mulling over how I would change it but inspiration has left me for now! Some of the keys to making this project work: patience, commitment to finishing it to the bitter end, and a Scor-Pal!!

Supplies: SU! Parisian Summer Designer Series Paper, SU! Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, Bravo Burgundy, and Whisper White Cardstock and Classic inks, SU! Dreams Du Jour and Cute and Curly stamp sets, miscellaneous punches, twine, ribbon, Scor-Pal and Scor-Pal tape.