Gingerbread Cheer

I'm planning my Christmas baking. Well, mostly I'm imagining it in my mind. I've taken one concrete step: I ordered these gel food colors and meringue powder, two important ingredients for decorating beautiful sugar cookie cut-outs. Actually, in that picture, I didn't use the gel colors, so here's to hoping the photos I post in a couple weeks have even better looking frosting!

Well, since the cut-outs aren't cut out yet, I thought this cute card would make an acceptable substitute.

The stamp set "Scentsational Season" includes this image of the gingerbread man (obviously, I stamped two images here), as well as a cup of hot cocoa, a Christmas tree, and a candy cane...all the stamps you'd need to make a pile of holiday (paper) treats!

This card also uses Whisper White and Cherry Cobbler card stock, Soft Suede classic ink, Designer Series Paper from the Festival of Prints paper stack in the Holiday Catalog, Basic Jewels - pearls (color them with a Sharpie!), and Adorning Accents Edgelits.

That's what I've got for tonight...oh, and in case you're wondering, tonight my husband is watching UFC Ultimate Fighter. Are you sensing a theme for when I retire to the craft studio to create or blog? ;)

Thanks for stopping!
Julie

Evergreen + Shimmer Paint

Every Tuesday, even though we now have DVR (hey, it just took us about ten years to join the party), my husband and I sit down to watch Sons of Anarchy. I love this show, I really do. The characters are deep and conflicted and interesting - just what any English lit major would want, right? But I can't watch most of it. It gets violent. I watched seasons of The Sopranos just fine, but Sons? I end up leaving the room to write a blog post, going back out to find out what happened at a commercial break (nevermind the DVR), and getting an eye roll from the hubs because I "should just stay and watch the show!"

Well, since I had to retire early from the viewing party, I thought I'd showcase this card I shared last month at our Stampin' Up! team gathering. I used the Evergreen stamp set from the Holiday Catalog; Certainly Celery, Almost Artichoke and Crumb Cake card stock; Almost Artichoke classic ink; a glimmer brad from the basics collection; the Woodgrain embossing folder; platinum shimmer paint and a sponge dauber.

The Evergreen set is a Two-Step Stampin' (c) set, which means it has base images and outline/overlay images. See in the photo below how the platinum shimmer paint, when daubed on the outline stamp, creates a subtle shimmer and dimension for the card? I love a little sparkle for the holidays!

I think Sons is over now, so I'm going to return the living room, get the update and eye roll, and try to steel my nerves for next week so maybe I can watch the entire hour.

Thanks for stopping by!

Julie

Gently Falling Trees

There's a beautiful stamp set in the Holiday Mini Catalog called Gently Falling (check it out to the right). It's a Two-Step Stampin' set, which means it has a background shape and an outline that work together to create dimensional images. Well, one of the images looks like a tree if you only do the first step! How quick and easy, and technically, half the work!

In the photo above, I used it to make evergreen-type trees in the fall color combo of More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy and Old Olive.

In this photo, I used Always Artichoke and Cherry Cobbler for a traditional Christmas card design. Clean and simple - my favorite kind. The beautiful ribbon is also new in the holiday mini catalog - it's quilted satin ribbon in Cherry Cobbler!

Thanks for reading! Have a great November!

Julie

Last-Minute Christmas Prep!

I'm pretty prepared for Christmas, but there is always just that "one more thing," isn't there? I made these tags for a workshop early in the month, but they would be a perfect last-minute touch for your gifts. Just get out your card stock scraps, some Stampin' Up! Designer Series (patterned) paper, some punches and ribbon, et voila!

These were inspired by (nearly "CASEd," which means Copy and Share Everything) by my friend and fellow local SE MN demonstrator Angie Bennett. The cardstock is Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla and Always Artichoke. The Designer Series Paper (patterned) is Deck the Halls from the Holiday Mini Catalog (only available until Jan. 4!), and the ribbons are Very Vanilla satin, twill tape and Cherry Cobbler seam binding. The stamp set is Perfect Punches, and the punches used are Fancy Label Punch and Round Tab Punch.

Now, the food portion of the program! Since my husband's snowmobile broke down as we were on our way out of the neighborhood, we didn't ride on Saturday. I baked instead. Notice the Christmas Crappies in the lower left?

The sugar cookie recipe is from Real Simple and the Royal Icing from allrecipes.com. This icing worked better than the Martha recipe I tried last year. Just sayin'.


And these couldn't be simpler. I first got the recipe from Kahla years ago...it's so simple, I probably shouldn't tell you how easy it is! But here goes...buy a bag of mini Reese's Peanut Butter cups. Buy a tube of prepared chocolate chip cookie dough. Cut the dough in slices and then in quarters. Place one piece in each cup of a mini muffin tin. Bake five minutes at 350 degrees. Quickly place a PB cup in each half-baked cookie. Bake five more minutes. Yum.


Good luck with your last-minute activities? What do you still have to do? I haven't wrapped a single gift. Guess that's my answer!

Merry Christmas!
Julie

Blizzard Activities

Today's blizzard showcases my husband's and my very different personalities. He is outside, smoking meat:


I am inside, making Christmas cards:



Later, the baking will commence. I love Christmas!

Thanks for stopping,
Julie

Tag Alongs

No, not the Girl Scout cookies, the Stampin' Up! stamp set that benefits the Ronald McDonald House! These cute penguin tags were made with the Tag Alongs stamp set, which includes three other images to use throughout the year. From every sale of this set, Stampin' Up! donates $2 to the Ronald McDonald House. It was one of the first sets I purchased this (catalog) year.


If you'd like to help the Ronald McDonald House out this year while you do a little Christmas shopping, I'd be happy to set you up with this set.

Happy Holiday Crafting!

Julie