Saturday, December 26, 2015

Surviving Christmas

Santa and I have a quirky sense of humor.

I paired the free colored Dearie Dolls digital image with Becca's sentiment (STAMPlorations) for a quick card.



If you celebrated Christmas, I hope you are relaxing today with a good cup of coffee!

Entering

STAMPlorations December Challenge:  Stamps and a Holiday

Friday, December 25, 2015

Books for the Creative Soul

For the first time, I "get" Google Connect. 

I was looking to respond to a person who left a comment on my blog, got "connected" to a few of her G+ comments, and ended up with a list of books to inspire our creative soul HERE. (FYI the list is a year old) The snippet quotes under each title were enough today to inspire me.

I think I'll get a couple of these books. 

Which one would you read first?

Another make from the archives:



Thursday, December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas

It's a family tradition (on my mother's side) to make pierogi for Christmas Eve.



How cute is this apron?  My oldest daughter gave it to me for Christmas a couple of years ago. You can find it on Etsy.

My grandparents immigrated from Poland near the Russian border.  That said, I've never had a pierogi filled with mashed potatoes.


Here is a pic of me with my babcia, and of course, my siblings.  This is how I remember her.

The two fillings my babcia made were:
1) ground beef with onion and hard boiled egg
2) farmer's cheese with onion and raw egg

We've adapted the recipe over the years, including following the ravioli dough recipe in the Fanny Farmer cookbook, using ground chuck and ricotti cheese.

This afternoon I managed to get 3 dozen made (3 batches of dough, 1 lb chuck and 1 container cheese; dough rolled, filled, boiled) in two hours.

Then comes the delish part, frying them in butter (Kerry Gold, of course) and dollaping with sour cream.

I like to serve them with spinach salad and cranberry sauce.

I'd like to serve pickled beets, but I'd be the only one eating them.  However, my nephew has a great recipe that doctors them up with balsamic vinegar, feta cheese and pecans.  I think I just talked myself into that for next year!

Whatever your holiday traditions, I hope they are memorable!

And just to throw in some papercrafting.... this is a Gecko Galz design team make from last year.



Sunday, December 20, 2015

Blog Hop Winners

Definitely hop hang-over!  But so much fun!  And I can't wait for the next Coffee Loving Papercrafters Blog Hop.

Winners of my 2 Holiday blog hop candy prizes:

$10 Starbucks gift card:  Sue Reynolds

Hot Chocolate packet (Snowman Soup Mix):  Chark

Please email me your snail mail addies!  I plan to mail these out on Tuesday, December 22.  If I don't hear from either winner by December 29, I will re-draw for that particular prize.


Friday, December 18, 2015

Holiday To Go Cup

Yikes!  I skipped yesterday!  Here's my sixth make for the Coffee Lovers Holiday Blog Hop.

It's been busy.  A trip out of town today included a stop at Starbucks to get the ugly sweater cozy.  I had my cup filled with Chestnut Praline.  It was delishl!



I used the template we worked with at my last craft club meeting.  I used an actual cardboard cozy to wrap around the middle.

The papers are Little Yellow Bicycle Christmas Magic from my stash.

Here is the sample from club and what I had started there.  I always take pictures so I can remember what it's supposed to look  like when I finish the project at home.



I changed it up a little as I put white on the backside as well and also wrapped the cozy all the way around.  I added a Starbucks gift card.  This one goes to my brother-in-law.



Here's the completed insert.  I used a sentiment from that awesome freebie digi set given to us by Verve Stamps for this hop.  


I  HAVE BLOG CANDY FOR THIS HOP.  JUST LEAVE A COMMENT HERE.  NO NEED TO  "FOLLOW" ME UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO. LIMITED TO COMMENTS FROM THOSE LIVING IN THE U.S.A. ONLY.  (I will try to do something digital for international visitors in the next hop.)  One winner will receive a Starbucks gift card. One winner will receive a hot chocolate packet. Picture on this post.  When you leave a comment on Day One HERE, please let me know if you'd like to be included in the blog candy drawing.   I will draw names Saturday evening, December 19.

Of course, I'd love a comment here, too, telling me how you like this gift card holder! Thanks so much for visiting!

Entering this card here:

Coffee Lovers Holiday Blog Hop.  I'm entry #630


Verve December Inspiration Challenge due January 5  I'm entry #47

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Teabag Gift Card Holder

Today is International Tea Day!


I love the free Dearie Dolls Digi Stamps.

My four-year-old granddaughter and I enjoy coloring them together.  It is a special time we share since we both love to craft.

And I use the pre-colored versions on cards.

I would like to share with you a Dearie Dolls link.  I hope you find it as delightful as I did.
The Snowman Song

Here is the latest card I made using a Dearie Dolls Digi. It's actually called Little Hot Chocolate Snowman.  I placed it on a teabag gift card holder. 



Why is it a teabag?  Because of the valley/mountain fold in the middle which can then hold a gift card or cash.  





Additional materials used:
Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch
DCWV glitter card stock
Tombow Fasterner Tabs (velcro tab to hold it shut)
Misc. scrap of 2 sided card stock
Really Reasonable Ribbon - silver


This is my 5th entry for the Holiday Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. This one is #443.



There is a special post on that site for International Tea Day.  You can see it HERE. There still is time to enter the blog hop.  Flash prizes are being awarded today.

I  HAVE BLOG CANDY FOR THIS HOP.  JUST LEAVE A COMMENT HERE.  NO NEED TO  "FOLLOW" ME UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO. LIMITED TO COMMENTS FROM THOSE LIVING IN THE U.S.A. ONLY.  (I will try to do something digital for international visitors in the next hop.)  One winner will receive a Starbucks gift card. One winner will receive a hot chocolate packet. Picture on this post.  When you leave a comment on Day One HERE, please let me know if you'd like to be included in the blog candy drawing.  

Of course, I'd love a comment here, too, telling me how you like this gift card holder! Thanks so much for visiting!

ALSO ENTERING THESE CHALLENGES:

Tuesday Throwdown:  #274 Anything Goes I'm #13 until January 4, 2016 x

Crafty Hazelnut's December Patterned Paper Challenge  I'm #253 x

Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #340  I'm #15 til Jan 1, 2016?? x

Monday, December 14, 2015

Mug Shots

Continuing with the coffee themes:

I was looking through my digital files when I came across the sentiment "mug shots" in the Crafty Secrets kitchen collection.

The idea immediately came to mind to show a film strip of mugs.  I found a film strip in my Pixel Scrappers digi collection, made by Janet Scott.  Using my Photoshop software, I filled the strip with cups from the Cup Collection found at Vera Lane Studio etsy shop.  The photographer and bow also are from Vera Lane Studio 

This time I wanted to create a mixed media tag for my coffee themed album.  I started with Stampin' Up very vanilla card stock and printed out all the digis.  Then I used another piece for the background.  




I made a Gelli Plate print using Lumiere Crimson paint, Deco Art Primitive chalky paint, and dry wall tape.
Once my print was dry, I placed on top of it the STAMPlorations ARTplorations Holly Background stencil and used a sponger dabber with Ranger Pine Needles Distress Ink.  I tried a red Sharpie on the berries.  

Fussy cut images and tag edges are edged with a black sharpie.  I used Stampin' Up dimensionals with the photographer and word strips.  The ricrac is The Paper Studio trim.

Entering this card here:

Time Out Challenges  #46 Christmas photo inspiration


Stamplorations ARTplorations Mixed Media December challenge--must use a stencil and can't be a card


Holiday Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.  This is my 4th entry.  This one is #383


I  HAVE BLOG CANDY FOR THIS HOP.  JUST LEAVE A COMMENT HERE.  NO NEED TO  "FOLLOW" ME UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO. LIMITED TO COMMENTS FROM THOSE LIVING IN THE U.S.A. ONLY.  (I will try to do something digital for international visitors in the next hop.)  One winner will receive a Starbucks gift card. One winner will receive a hot chocolate packet.  When you leave a comment on Day One HERE, please let me know if you'd like to be included in the blog candy drawing.  

Of course, I'd love a comment here, too, telling me how you like this mixed media card! Thanks so much for visiting!

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Hot Chocolate!

Today is National Cocoa Day!

You know I have to make at least one totally digital card for each Coffee Lovers hop. So here is a 5x4 inch digital composition that will be printed and placed on a white 6x5 card.




Digital Files
DeeDee's Digis sentiment from Cup of Christmas
Winnie and Walter digital image peppermint border from the Daily Grind
Pixel Scrapper snow day mug with marshmallows made by Brook Gazarek
Pixel Scrapper Christmas in July candy cane by Sheila Reid
Pixel Scrapper red bow by Merisa Lerin


Entering this digital make here:

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge: #259 Anything Goes (one of this week's sponsors is DeeDee's Digis) x

The Holiday Coffee Lovers Blog Hop 2015  This is my third entry and this one is #310.


There is a special post on that site for National Cocoa Day.  You can see it HERE. There still is time to enter the blog hop.  Flash prizes are being awarded today.

I  HAVE BLOG CANDY FOR THIS HOP.  JUST LEAVE A COMMENT HERE.  NO NEED TO  "FOLLOW" ME UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO. LIMITED TO COMMENTS FROM THOSE LIVING IN THE U.S.A. ONLY.  (I will try to do something digital for international visitors in the next hop.)  One winner will receive a Starbucks gift card. One winner will receive a hot chocolate packet. Picture on this post.  When you leave a comment on Day One HERE, please let me know if you'd like to be included in the blog candy drawing.  

Of course, I'd love a comment here, too, telling me how you like this clean and simple card! Thanks so much for visiting!

Owl Coffee Card

This is my Day 2 (aka 2nd entry) for the Holiday Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.  This one is entry #229.

I used the freebie given to us by one of the hop's super sponsors, JessicaLynnOriginal.  If you haven't checked out the hop, there are tons of sponsors with prizes to be awarded.  In addition, several have freebie digital images on their sites just for this occasion.  Jessica offered us Barista Brentwood Owl.



Isn't that coffee cup cute?  I picked it up at the local dollar store and plan to give it as a gift.

I used Copic markers and a double sided patterned paper from Webster's Pages Waiting for Santa collection.  This paper has been in my stash for quite some time so I was happy to finally cut it up.

Here's another view of the card.  I tried to add the look of texture by layering several Copic colors.



As promised in my previous post, here is a picture of my blog candy that I'm offering to folks who live in the USA.  Next hop I'll get something that can go digitally internationally.   Please leave a comment on Day One HERE that you are interested in the blog candy, if you haven't already done so.



One winner will get that cute Starbucks gift card.  A second winner will get the snowman hot chocolate mix and the card I make to go with it.

It's not too late to join in the hop!  December 13th is National Cocoa Day and there are flash prizes! Just go HERE to link up your creation!


Friday, December 11, 2015

World's Best Cup of Coffee

I was watching the movie Elf when I got inspired to make this card.



Materials:
Vera Lane Studio digital stamps
combination of Copic markers and digital coloring.  Added words to coffee cup
A Cut Above Coffee die by Verve stamps
Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium patterned papers
Bazzill Basics card stock
bell, baker's twine and red dots from stash

Entering this card here:

Winter/Holiday Coffee Lovers Blog Hop Day #1 I'm #161

I WILL HAVE BLOG CANDY FOR THIS HOP.  JUST LEAVE A COMMENT HERE.  NO NEED TO  "FOLLOW" ME UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO. LIMITED TO COMMENT FROM THOSE LIVING IN THE U.S.A. ONLY.  One winner will receive a Starbucks gift card.  One winner will receive a hot chocolate packet.  Pictures on tomorrow's post.  When you leave a comment, please let me know if you'd like to be included in the blog candy drawing.  Thanks so much for visiting!


Thursday, December 3, 2015

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

For my December Unruly PaperArts blogozine creative contribution, I made some simple cards/gift tags using free Santa clip art from Vintage Holiday Crafts website.

I started by printing the images, folding them on the left side, and cutting them out.  This gave me small shaped cards which I then layered onto white paper embossed with my various seasonal embossing folders, then layered onto colored card stock.

More details and photos can be found at the Unruly PaperArts blogozine here.



It's hard to believe this is my last article at UPA and that this also is the final UPA issue.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Santa Claus is Visiting Unruly PaperArts This Month

The December issue of Unruly PaperArts blogozine is up. Our theme this month is Santa Claus

Unfortunately, this is our last issue. You can read about that here.  UPA evolved from Gingersnap Creations.  I made the transition from one group to the other so I'm sad to see it come to a end. 

My article will be posted on December 3. Here's a sneak peek.



I would like to enter this here:

Craft-Dee BowZ December Monthly Challenge CDB32: Anything Goes with a handmade bow
I used my Craft-Dee BowZ tool to make the bow, following the easy directions that came with it. This is the first time I actually used the bow maker which I had won in a contest.

Curtain Call Dear Santa due December 10
The Santa graphic is from Vintage Holiday Graphics.


I also posted this in Tag Tuesday where I play when I have time.  Our theme is bows.

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