I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We were lucky enough to spend the day with our two awesome kids and their equally awesome spouses, our adorable grandson and our daughter-in-law's family. It was a great day - thank you Santa!
Here is a photo of our little grandson on Christmas Day.

See why I say adorable? He is such a sweetie!

Now that gift giving is over I can share with you a special project that I worked on last month. It was a Tim Holtz Configuration Tray. Last year I made two '7Gypsies' ones for our 'kids' of their respective honeymoons.They are made of dark wood and the 'boxes' are permanent and a part of it. They are awesome and are a lot of fun to do but the TH ones are different. They are made out of a heavy ivory coloured chipboard and contain several boxes that are removable. You remove or move the little boxes within the tray to get the 'configuration' you want. This allows you to completely customize it to fit your photos and embellies. Once this was done I used a plain binding tape to hold the boxes together and make them permanent. I made sure that all corners and crevices were covered and smooth before painting the top and sides of the tray, as well as inside the boxes, with Making Memories Scrapbook Paint in 'Manila'. Next I sanded it to give it a distressed look. It still wasn't the shabby-chic look that I was going for though. So I dry-brushed it with MM chocolate brown paint then sanded again. After all was dry, I was ready to add photos, paper and embellies. I used 'Simple Stories - Baby Steps' line of papers and some miscellaneous embellies. I used a SU! pennant builder punch to make the cute banner along the top adding twine and SS buttons. I really enjoyed making this but most of all I enjoyed seeing the joy on faces as it was opened Christmas day.

I HOPE EVERYONE HAD A FANTASTIC CHRISTMAS!

One Last Christmas Project

Last night was the final night of the year for our Technique (Geek) Club. We made a cute little 'christmas tree'  luminary. We stamped vellum cardstock with flourishes after running it thru the Big Shot with the SU! cone shape die. Next we folded and adhered it to a scalloped square base. As usual, I messed up!! I folded it in the wrong place leaving an obvious crease along the front. The way I look at it though is that mistakes are good as they force you to be creative. So, I added seam binding ribbon to cover my mistake and added a bow. It's also from SU! (Baja Breeze - the same as the ink colour and cardstock base). I added some rhinestones in both clear and blue and topped it with a glittery silver snowflake (SU! die) attached with a glittery silver brad from MM. The final touch though is to add a little battery operated 'tealight' to the inside back and let the light shine thru!! So pretty!

Final Christmas Card

For my last 2 cards I decided to make gatefold cards. I quickly got one in the mail to go to Ont. before I got pictures taken. But I did manage a photo of the 2nd one - the design is a bit different although it is still a gatefold and I used the same paper line from My Minds Eye (Lost and Found - Christmas).

I got the basic design from one we created at my monthly Technique Club - shown HERE. I then made an accordian flower using 'almost artichoke' SU! CS and adhered a MME chipboard circle to the front (love the sparkle and bling on it). I then attached a tag with a pearl brad both from the same pp line. To finish it off I added grosgrain ribbon in 'very vanilla' from SU!

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST IN THE NEW YEAR!!!

Xmas Cards

I have 2 more cards to make this year, then I'm done. It's a good thing as they need to be mailed to Ont. asap! Meanwhile, I picked a few faves to share with you.

The first card uses Theresa Collins Christmas line and the amazing Webster Pages xmas cameos and antique lace from my stash. I used a SU! label stamp with a xmas sentiment and the matching label punch.

This card uses My Minds Eye 'Lost and Found - Christmas', one of their beautiful pearl brads and the same antique lace.

This card is also the Theresa Collins xmas pp using the 'Welcome Christmas' stamp by SU! and one of their beautiful antique brads. I bought a pad of black 'Brilliance' ink, which I have always loved, but when I got home I discovered it wasn't a true black. It's kind of a greyish black but when you tilt it in the light it has a gold shimmer to it. I love it! Here is a closeup of it showing the shimmer.

Next is a card specifically for my bachelor brother. He is a deer hunter who lives in northern Ont. I thought this card was appropriate. (Again Theresa Collins pp)

Next is one using Bo Bunnys 'Father Christmas', a SU! stamp and again a beautiful Webster Pages cameo.

My aunt loves sparkle and bling on everything! She also grew up in the days of big, glitzy chandeliers, so this Theresa Collins pp was perfect for her.

I used assorted Rangers Stickles to add the sparkle and bling - here is a closeup:

The next card was more of a technique trial. I stamped the SU! images using the 'Welcome Christmas' and 'Lovely as a Tree' stamps on cardstock. I then stamped with Versamark and covered in UTEE (Ulta Thick Embossing Enamel). Next I randomly sprinkled on some SU! glitter glass in champagne colour then heat set it. Again, I added Versamark, another layer of UTEE and heat set again. Once dry don't be surprised when it cracks a bit. I carefully used an exacto knife to cut the image into quarters. I placed this on cardstock to look like window panes (albeit cracked window panes!). I added this to Bo Bunny pp and added a BB trinket and SU! ribbon and greeting stamp.

The last one is my favourite. First off I love the combination of black and blue on any card - be it birthday, anniversary, thank you or Christmas! I used Prima pp from the 'Printery' line - no, there's no christmas paper here! I first painted an embossed chipboard element from Tattered Angels with Making Memories 'Manila' paint. I then ran my versamark pen around the outside and sporadically on the chipboard then used platinum embossing powder and heated. I then rubbed it with Ranger Stickles to add some glitter and distressed a bit more by sanding. Once this was done and attached to the card with Imaginisce black pearl brads I added a Websters Pages Cameo to the centre. To finish it off I stamped a sentiment from Inkadinkadoo.(lol - that name makes me laugh). Love it!

THANKS AND I HOPED YOU ENJOYED MY 2011 CHRISTMAS CARDS

Gift Cardholder Purses

OMG - How cute are these!! Last month I missed my Technique (aka Geek) Club but the wonderful and talented Marlene Peters made up a kit for me to do at home. I am so thankful as I am totally in love with her little gift cardholder purses. The first one I made from her class kit but where she had little jingle bells attached to the bow I opted to use a SU! antique brad and used the jingle bells on my stocking tag. It was ingenious how Marlene used a negative part of the 'top note' die inside to hold the gift card! All supplies for this were SU! except for the magnetic strip.

I loved it so much that I made a second one. With this one I used Basic Greys 'Little Black Dress' line. There is a paper in this line that reminded me of the Burberry plaid so I created a Burberry handbag with a cute Prima flower. I decided not to round the corners on this one just to make it a bit different. I used a tan coloured twill for the handle and attached it using brads that have been in my stash for ages. They were perfect for this - just goes to show you that you should always hoard as you never know!(I'm good at that!!) The thing I love about these purses (except the fact that they're so dang cute) is that they can be made for any occasion or age depending on the paper used. I absolutely hate giving Gift Cards but this makes it fun and it at least looks like you have put some thought and effort into it. Thanks Marlene!

Mojo is Back!

Well, sort of. I am taking it slow but with Dec. upon us, time is running out! I have some mini file folders to share with you. On the first one I added a tag inside to insert a gift card into. I cropped and converted the photos of my adorable grandson to b/w so they wouldn't clash with the pp on the folder. It's for my mom (great grandma) so I printed off 4X6 colour copies for her also so that she can add them to her own photo album.

I used the Bo Bunny 'Father Christmas' Line for this along with Prima bling and a SU! antique brad and ribbon. The next one is a combination of BB Father Christmas and My Minds Eye 'Lost and Found - Christmas.' The edges were unintentionally covered in assorted sticker hinges to cover a mistake - but it turns out that I kind of like them. I also used embellies from both lines and flowers from Prima.

That's it for now. I have a ton of xmas cards that I need to remember to take pics of before I mail out. Time is running out - Send me some Christmas mojo please.