One last pic for this year....

Here's a pic of me and #1 phew on Christmas day at mum & dad's

I made him sit down for the picture, it's the only way he doesn't tower over me

At 14 he is 6 foot 2, at almost 41 I am 5 foot 3 (if I stretch)

I "heart" my family

So here we are on the last day of 2011...how will you be ringing in the new year?

I will be hanging out for a few hours at least, with these crazy people....my family

This pic was taken at #1 phew's grade 8 graduation this past summer (thanks Alley for sending it to me!!)

Not sure how he convinced grandma and his dad to do the vulcan sign (is that what that is???) but there you have it...

So from left to right, here are the people I love most - cousin Josh, my short little mum, my slightly taller dad, cousin Alley (who gets married in 2o12!! YAY!!!), my bro and #1 phew

New Years Resolutions

So here we are on the last Friday of 2011
2012 is less than 48 hours away
What am I going to do differently next year??
I've decided 2012 is going to be the year of ridding myself of all things uneccessary...whatever they may be
I am still contemplating giving up facebook (again) but it's really the only way I communicate with some family members overseas...so I am still thinking on that one
To get a head start on my resolution, I started today by deleting my pinterest account - I never did get the whole appeal of that...if I don't use actual bulletin boards at home why do I need a virtual one?? So that's gone.
Next, I deleted my Random Rants and Rambles blog, I haven't updated it since mid October, do I really NEED 2 separate blogs??? Nahhhhh...so that's gone too.
Not a bad start to the cleanse :) and its still 2011

Happy Post Christmas!!!

So Christmas is over for another year....362 days til next Christmas for those who are counting :)
(you're welcome for that reminder)...now on to counting down the last 4 days of 2011...

I am happy with my crafty progress over the holidays, made all my own Christmas cards again this year, as well as a big order for a United Way fundraiser for work and a few smaller orders for friends and family.

Last year I participated in a handmade Christmas ornament exchange on Stampin Canada, Wendy was my partner and she made me the COOLEST paper ornament I had ever seen. It looked like a small book all folded up, then you open it and it makes a star. I wanted so badly to learn how to make one!

Wendy brought it to our SU downline Christmas party, and then our SU upline (the lovely ML) sent us a video on how to make it. Here's a link if you are interested:
http://www.dawnsstampingthoughts.net/2011/12/paper-star-ornament-video-.html

So I made a bunch for Christmas for family....and then this one for my cousin-to-be Mike who shares my love for zombies and skulls, I think everyone should have at least one skull themed ornament on their tree :)

Here is the ornament folded up / closed:

And here is is open:

Doily revisited

I mentioned in a previous post that I remade the doily Christmas card in black ink, and liked it better than the one that we made in cherry cobbler ink.

Here is the black one, which do you like better??

Careful what you ask for....

Someone asked me to make a Christmas card in the colours of the Jamaican flag...cool!!! I love a challenge!! First thing I had to do was figure out what a Jamaican flag looks like...turns out it looks like this:

Here's the Christmas card I made based on the flag:

Send Christmas cards to our troops overseas!

I will be sending off a few cards this weekend to troops overseas.
I write a note and tuck it inside, but leave the card blank so they can use it to send home to loved ones.
If you would like to send a card to our troops, here's the address:

Any Canadian Forces Member
Op Attention
Kabul
PO Box 5140 Stn Forces
Belleville ON
K8N 5W6

More Christmas Countdown

Starting to think with 14 sleeps left til Christmas I should concentrate less on making cards and more on shopping...well maybe this week...until then...here's more cards :)

Doily in cherry cobbler (from SAS with ML), I remade this one doing the doily in black and liked it even better

Loved this one we made at the SAS so much I bought the stamp set, Carole redid this one in green and it looked great!

Two variations of a card we made at Stamparama, I like it in purple, a non traditional Christmas colour (and I love anything purple), but I do really like it in the green as well

Countdown to Christmas Continued

I have been delinquent in uploading Christmas cards to the blog

We made close to 170 cards for a United Way fundraiser at work, so that took a few weeks to get done, luckily I had some help

So here are a few Christmas cards I have been working on the past little while...

3-D Christmas tree using the pennant punch from SU:

Snowman shaker:

Two variations on a snowman card from another snowman card made during a SAS with ML

Lovely as a Tree Reflection

We learned this reflection technique at Stamparama this fall...I thought it was so fun and different

You stamp your original image on the cardstock, then again on a piece of acetate, line it up and press down to get the reflection, lovely as a tree is a perfect stamp for this, looks like the trees are reflected off the water / ice