Over The River and......

 .......Through The Woods, To Grandmother's House We Go.........    The idea for this post came from my good friend Buffy, whose post the other day was about her grandmother's house.  But the real inspirational "clincher" came from my granddaughter, Hannah.  Grampa and I went on Friday to pick up my son's 2 kids -- J.T. and Hannah -- to bring them up to our home for a pre-Christmas weekend.  My son had to work on Saturday but joined us for our Christmas celebration as soon as he finished work. 

On Friday, as we drove through the gate to our community Hannah started singing the song "Over the River and Through the Woods To Grandmother's House we go..."  Then she said, "that's really true of your house grama, except I have to change the word to grama, not grandmother, because  you aren't grandmother."  Leave it to her to be precise.   Since I haven't done any crafting for several days because of all the Christmas activities, I thought I would show you the travel to our house..........  (Added:  Please excuse the spacing.  Nothing I did would eliminate all these spaces.  Ugh!)

Over the river............

 

 

 







           And through the woods........

 

To Grandmother's House We Go.....

 And these are the two munchkins.  We had a great holiday celebration.  I hope you all had a great time with your families with lots of fun, good food, great gifts, and many blessings.

Until next time..............

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Coloring Down the Lines -- Pool Party

I certainly hope once the holidays are over things slow down -- a lot!  I feel every day like I'm running a race.  Whew!  Shopping and wrapping are done, but I am only about 3 weeks late in baking cookies, planning meals, and spending time sitting in front of the tree and listening to music.  I usually try to spend evenings with a fire and some music -- to get in the spirit.    Starting today, though, I hope to slow down.  I'm setting up this post on Tuesday morning before heading 90 miles away to my son's house.  Hubby and I are going to listen to our grandson, who is having his strings recital tonight, so we are going to listen to him play Christmas music.  I know he is just a beginner, but it will be fun to listen.  We won't get home until close to midnight.  I doubt I will feel like doing cards and posts then.

So, having said all that, I bet you are here for our Coloring Down the Lines Blog Hop.  Well, you have come to the right place.  We were challenged to use Pool Party with So Saffron and Not Quite Navy or Pool Party with Chocolate Chip and Wild Wasabi.  I used the first choice.  If you arrived from Liz's blogsite I know you had a treat with what she has done for us.   I like simplicity, and I love her lineup of trees.   Now here is my card.  This is Dapper Dan -- Uh, I mean Dapper Snowman!

I am not terribly happy with it, as I think I could have done better.  What was in my head did not come out on paper.  But, since I didn't get started sooner, and am rushing off to the concert, this is what I need to go with.  One nice thing about this card, Mr. Dapper Snowman is struttin' his stuff with tophat and diamond buttons.  He must be off to a concert tonight too -- only not of the elementary school style.  I bet we have more fun.

So I hope you like Mr. Dapper, now let's head over to Teri's blogsite to see what she did.  I can't wait to see............

Come back to see me again soon.

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

For The Little Grands

And this is the card for the other grands, the littler ones.  I love the little raised heads.  It makes these characters so cute.  I know for sure the 4 yr old will ask about the bird on the tail of the deer.  I didn't discover this stamp set -- No Peeking -- until a week or so ago.  I can't imagine how I missed it, unless it is because I was focusing more on Scentsational Seasons and the Holiday catalog.  But this set is adorable.

I am going to need more stamps for little kids.  I no more than finished saying I don't do baby cards or anything in soft pinks and blues with booties or feet, because I don't have teeny grandchildren any more, and none of my friends do either.  Well, it wasn't a day or more later that we found out our 6 grands will be joined next summer by another and we will have 7.  Then my really good girlfriend told me she is going to be a grandma for the first time.  And a special neighbor who lives up here during the summer just told us she is expecting next summer.   Where are all these babies coming from -- well, I know where they come from (duh!), I just want to know how come all of a sudden.  So I am starting to take another look at stamps like Two By Two, and Baby Bundle, and Baby Prints.  We all know how much fun babies are, so we are really looking forward to all these new wee ones.

Here is the inside of the card and also the envelope.  Notice the grainy deer on the envelope?  Well I ran out of Stampin'Up! envelopes and had to go to Staples to get more.  I never noticed before how different our envlopes are.  They have such a nice smooth texture.  The ink sits on the envelope crisp and bright.  Those "other" envelopes are not nearly as nice.  I hope I never run out again.




I hope you like my card today.  Be sure to come back for our blog hop on Wednesday.

Until next time......................

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Happy Cookies

Wow, another week has flown by.  I'm counting the days until Christmas almost like my grandchildren, only more from the point of how much time I have to get it all done, than from the point of how long until Santa comes.  I still have cookies to bake and packages to wrap.  I think the shopping is done, except for a few stocking stuffers.  How about you?  Finished?  Hope your preparations are getting done.  I hope to finish up this weekend so that next week we can play music, wrap presents, and enjoy the season.

My card today is one that we will be giving to a couple of our grandchildren.  I love these little gingerbread guys.  I think even adults love getting a card with these cookies dancing around.  I still have to design another card for the remaining grands, but I think it, too, will have these cute little cookies on them.

The inside and the envelope have more cookies.  I will probably be using a different sentiment for the grands, but you get the idea.   Just had an idea for the younger grands, maybe I could come up with a card having a plate of gingerbread cookies for Santa.






I hope you enjoyed my card today.  Time to get the recipes out and start all those cookies -- one of my favorites is ginger snaps.  Have a great weekend.  Hope to see you again soon.

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Coloring Down the Lines -- Lucky Limeade

It's blog hop Wednesday with Coloring Down The Lines.  I think we are nearing completion of the total Color Coach.  I'll have to go count how many are left so I will know.  Today's colors are Lucky Limeade with Riding Hood Red and Perfect Plum OR Lucky Limeade with Island Indigo and Delightful Daffodil.  I chose to use the second because I could just see those brilliant colors together, and I knew what I wanted to do.  I think my card today accidentally turned out to be a "guy" card.  How did that happen?  Guy cards are so difficult.   Oh, first,  I know you came to me from Liz's blogsite.  Liz has been missing in action for awhile due to lots of life happenings, but she is back, and did a terrific job, as usual, don't you think?   We certainly have missed her.

Today I got a whole boxful of brand, spanking, new SU product from the spring catalog, and some things from the Sale-a-bration brochure too.  You are going to love all this new stuff.  Once I opened that box I had to try out some of the goodies!

This card was made with the Honeycomb embossing folder.  I hand cut all those little hexagons (probably why my typing isn't so great right now), but do you want to make a bet that SU comes out with a hexagon punch in the near future?  What is your wager -- a free punch?   First I embossed a piece of Whisper White for my base.  After that I embossed a piece of Island Indigo and also a piece of Daffodil Delight with the Fancy Fan embossing folder and then ran it through the Honeycomb folder.  That embossed the hexagons and shaped them.  Then I watched TV for a while so that I could cut them out.  The rest was easy peasy.  I hope you like my easy, but tedious card.

Now, you should hurry on over to Teri's blogsite with me.  I can't wait to see what she has done for us.  I bet it is something really super.

Until next time...............

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Lovely Tree Cutout

I have a couple more Christmas cards and then on to spring.  I'll be getting a whole box of great things this afternoon from the new spring catalog and I can't wait to start using them.   You will love all the Valentines, flowers, springy designer paper and accessories.  There are embossing folders, more bundles, and some really pretty ribbon.  I am very anxious to try my hand at the soft colors of spring.  Oh, but if you like bold colors, there are bold colors too.

Ok, so on to another of my Christmas cards.  This one uses Lovely As A Tree -- should I say it?  Please, SU, don't ever, EVER, retire this set!!!

I also used an embossing folder with a cutout to display the tree.  And there is lots of sparkle, most of which you can't see.

The inside is a beautiful sentiment from More Merry Messages.  I think this set has some of the nicest messages, and if SU retires this set, I know I will continue to use it anyway.  The envelope carries the evergreen theme with the branch from Christmas Lodge. 








 I  hope you like my card today.  I am off to my craft room to do some more crafting.  Just a little more Christmas.  Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for our Coloring Down the Lines blog hop.

Until next time.....................

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Cupcake Birthday

I had to do another birthday card for a niece this week.  I decided on cupcakes, as I hadn't done anything with my set in quite a while.  I saved a card very similar to mine in my ideas folder some time ago, but there is no watermark and I don't remember who made the sample.  Sorry I can't give credit for the inspiration.   Mine has been changed up a bit, and the inside is totally my idea.  But here is my take.

The inside has a gift envelope for money that I included as her birthday present.  And the envelope carries the cupcake theme.  The frosting on all the cupcakes is sparkly and with drawn chocolate jimmies, but hard to see in the photos.








I hope you like my birthday card.  Come back soon, I'm still working on Christmas cards, and soon I'll be doing some gift projects.  I'll be getting my Stampin'Up! pre-order of spring product this Tuesday and I am really anxious to get my fingers into all those springy colors, spring holidays, and flowers.  I'm really excited about all the pretty things Stampin'Up! has for us. 

Until next time............................

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

For The Money Gifts

We have had some gorgeous weather the past few days.  Summer type weather.  But I suppose it is unreasonable to expect that beautiful weather all winter long, so today it will be cooler.  I need to go find my jacket again -- ha!

Today I have an assortment of things I have been working on for Christmas.  I am giving money to my almost grown and live far away nieces, and a donation to my uncle's monastery, and so on.  Therefore, I have made an assortment of gift boxes and gift cards for the nickels and dimes -- just kidding about the nickels and dimes.  I had made some gift cards earlier in the month using Scentsational Seasons, and I like all those trees, candy canes, bears and mugs so much that I just carried the theme on for these too.

Be of Good Cheer is the main designer paper, but I believe there is a bit of retired paper mixed in.  I have found so much hoarded, retired, paper that I need to use up.  I bet no one else hoards paper like I do, right?

I'll be back again soon with most likely more Christmas things.  I'm not finished yet.  Are you getting close to being finished?  These holidays are creeping up on me way too fast.

Until next time............................

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Coloring Down The Lines -- Island Indigo

The weeks are passing faster and faster.  I hope you are nearly finished getting ready for Christmas.  I'm still struggling.  However, today we're here for another Wednesday with our Coloring Down the Lines blog hop.  You should have arrived from Joni's blogsite.  Isn't she amazing?  I always have fun looking at her creations. 

Our challenge this week is to use Island Indigo with More Mustard and Lucky Limeade OR Island Indigo with Baja Breeze and Rich Razzleberry.  I chose the later. 

My stamp set is Come To Bethlehem, and I heat embossed the image with white embossing powder.  I sponged first with Baja Breeze and then a little Island Indigo.  I mounted the image on Whisper White and then on the Island Indigo card.  Add a little Rich Razzleberry and Baja Breeze and some pearls to the side and done.  It was a fun and easy card and now I have one more Christmas card to mail.  I'm almost finished.

Thanks for visiting my blog.  Now come along with me over to Teri's blogsite to see what she has today.  I know it is gorgeous. 

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Holiday Glimmer

Happy Tuesday.  Wow, where did the past few days go?  I barely remember a weekend, was there one?  It has been so busy in our household, yet I feel I'm not accomplishing anything.  Do you feel that way too?  Christmas is coming and I'm not ready.  So, with all that, I'll show you a couple more quick cards and then get back to my "chores."

The cut portion for these two cards was given to me by a friend (hi, Linda, and thank you), and all I needed to do to make them pretty was put some of our red and champagne glimmer behind the cuts.  It makes a really pretty and sparkly Christmas card.

I hope you have a great Tuesday, and be sure to come back tomorrow for our regular Wednesday blog hop.  The hop group will each have another "creation" using the colors from the color coach.

Until then.........................

Crafty hugs,
Sandy

Birthday Bear

Well I had a really fun day yesterday crafting with friends.  I got a lot done -- 15 Christmas cards and 3 gift cards.  But I won't have a lot to show here because most of the cards were repeats so that I can get the rest of my cards out this week.  But today I do have a birthday card.  I did this one for our 2 yr old grandson.  I think he'll like the little bear.  Hope you like it too.

Here is the inside and the envelope.












I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Now that we will be having yet another grand -- yup, another one is due next summer -- I'll have to break out the baby stuff again.  I just finished saying I wasn't buying any more baby stamps because I didn't know anyone with babies.  I guess that is what happens when you open your mouth to speak!   But we love all our grands, so we are excited about this one too.  And they are moving to the East Coast next summer, so we'll get lots more opportunities to spoil those kids.  Yippeeeeeee!!!

I hope you have a great weekend, and come back again for a visit soon.

Crafty Hugs
Sandy