Christmas 2008

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My goodness; where does the time go? For weeks I've been preparing for Christmas. I made and sent about 60 cards this year. I baked three kinds of cookies and a batch of fudge. And of course there was the shopping, wrapping and decorating. And now, it's almost all over. For most people it IS over; but since Larry and I both come from large families, there are still two more family get-togethers we have to get through. Which means more eating!! LOL
I am so pleased with my tree this year, that I wanted to share a couple of pictures. These are close ups of some of the blue & silver ornaments.



I haven't been able to get any good photos of our outdoor decorations this year; it's either been too cold, too snowy, or too foggy! I'm still hoping to get a couple before it's time to pull the plug though.
My mother in law is one of the most difficult people on my shopping list every year.
She always comments on how lovely the hand made cards are that I send her for her birthday and at Christmas though; so this year I made her a set of 12 all occasion cards to send out during the year and alterd an empty envelope box to store them in. I am really looking forward to giving her this gift this year because I think she will really like it.






Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of my Christmas activities. I'm really sorry
to see it all come to an end! It's a lot of work and gets very hectic; but I really
love everything about this holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all
of my friends!

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I've needed to make about 55 Christmas cards this year. Needless to say; I've had
to make them quickly, but still wanted to make them attractive. Here are a dozen that I was able to make in one evening. Just red and green cardstock (all embossed with Cuttlebug folders), a bit of print paper (Making Memories Fa La La), and images
from Altered Pages.

Too busy........

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I really wish I could do without sleep. I just have so many things that I want to do and not nearly enough time to do them all! I did get my Christmas cards finished and most mailed. I have my gift for the gal that I am Secret Santa for; but have to mail it yet. I started decorating the house (have the bathroom done; hey, it's the smallest room!)
I had a couple of birthdays to make cards for, so I thought I'd share them with you. The first one is for my son in law. His birthday was on November 30 so I thought I could still get away with a fall card. I find it really difficult to make cards for men. Guess I just don't have the right kind of stamps for masculine ones. Hmmmmmm; a reason to go shopping for more!

I did a little experimenting with this one. I stamped the veins (normally would stamp the background shape first) of the largest leaf twice on white cardstock using Versamark ink and white embossing powder. After heat embossing those, I then stamped the background shape over the veins. I continued to fill in the remaining space with the other leaf background and vein stamps. Then I took a Versamark marker and went over each leaf and then heat embossed them all with clear embossing powder. Finally I used a dauber and a brown ink pad and starting at the edges, inked the entire background; lighter in the center. The stamp set is by Close To My Heart.
The second card is for my grandson. He is playing basketball for the first time this year, so I went with that theme. I stamped the words "Shooting Hoops" all over the background on white cardstock, again used a dauber to shade the edges and background. Then I stamped the basketball, cut it out and attached it with a pop dot. These stamps are also from Close To My Heart. I covered the chipboard arrow with white cardstock, inked the edges and stamped the greeting on it.

Finally, a Christmas project that I did this week. I used the Karen Foster Countdown to Christmas box, Making Memories Fa La La papers, and flowers from Making Memories and Prima for this. The ribbon and flower embellishment slips off so it can be changed. I found as I was working on this that the drawers can be reversed; both sides have the finger notch. So after Christmas I will slip off the ribbon/flower and decorate the other side of each of the drawers in another theme and then add a different ribbon and embellishment. So stay tuned..............

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I'm not a big fan of snow. For me it means getting up even earlier than normal so
I can have the sidewalks cleared before the first kids arrive in the morning. But the first snowfall is so pretty that I had to take a couple of pictures. We have a snowstorm in the forecast for this evening; three to five inches perhaps. So my alarm will be set for 3:30!!

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One of my Yahoo groups is doing a "Believe" card banner swap. Seven of us are each
doing one of the seven letters in the word believe in the traditional Christmas red and green (seven the same). We will end up with one of each of the letters (done like a card) that we can sit on a mantle or hang. This is my letter "E".

One of the girls didn't see that the cards were supposed to be done in red and green; she did seven of the letter "E" in blue and silver. I told her that the colors I decorate in for Christmas are blue and silver. So she is sending me three of her "E"s, I made two of each of the letters "B", "L", and "V" (one for each of us) and we are each making a letter "I" and a decorative card for at the beginning and end. Here are the cards I made. I'll post another picture of the finished banner when I receive the three "E"s from my friend Robin.

card sketch challenge

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My friend Robin has been posting card sketches on her blog (check it out here)
rockinrobin1973.blogspot.com
I have been having so much fun making cards with her sketches! I've made four Christmas cards (well, it's a start) and a get well card (my grandson had tubes put in his ears again yesterday) with this latest one. The first three Christmas cards started out the same but ended up so much differently just by changing the embellishments! I can see making a large variety of cards with the same papers just by mixing them up a bit more. Hope you like them!

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Aaron (12) and Levi (11) decided they were too big to go trick or treating this year, so they rented a Wii and played games while the others were out. I'm sure they still got their share of the candy!

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We had lots of ghouls and goblins in our family this year for Halloween. There was one witch, a pirate, and two creatures!! The weather was cold and very windy this year so we only stayed out about an hour. The grandkids still had a great time and
got lots of treats.

Halloween ATC's

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I made these two Halloween ATC's for a challenge at Altered Pages. For both I made
the backgrounds using Cuttlebug folders. I inked the raised areas. The images are from Altered Pages collage sheets "Happy Halloween" AP-288 and "Antique Halloween" AP-1080. I used foam tape to raise the images from the background slightly.

Football frenzy.........

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Our grandson's football seasons are coming to an end, so I thought I'd share a few
great shots I got at recent games. The first ones are of Levi (eleven). He got to be quarterback in one game. He is in the red and white uniform; WI. Badgers!!



After his last game, I took this photo of him in his uniform.

Our (almost) 15 year old grandson is a freshman in high school this year. He has been playing running back and has done a great job in that position. This first photo shows him running to try to catch a kickoff.

And here he's running in one of two touchdowns he made at his last home game! I'm
really going to miss watching them play!

I've been able to do a couple new layouts too recently. This first one is of my grandsons playing with some of the costumes we have for the kids to play with. All but one were dressed up in this photo. Don't know why Levi didn't have a costume on too? So this is what I came up with for a title.

This second layout is from one of a few karate lessons Aaron tried. He was in a summer program but didn't continue with it once summer was done.

Give away!!!

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My friend Donalda is having a great give-away on her blog. Please go check it out and leave a comment for your chance to win a terrific stamp!
http://donaldas.blogspot.com/

Topsy Turvy

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No matter how good my intentions are to post more often, here I am
once again finally finding time to add a couple of things. My daughter
and her husband had to make an emergency flight to Arizona last week;
her mother in law passed away after a brave three year battle with cancer.
So I've been keeping the daycare running mostly by myself which of course
meant no time to create or post. I'd like to thank my son for filling in
both with caring for his sister's four kids; running them to their respective
schools, picking them up and taking them to their football practices and
games, and helping them with their homework and with helping me with the
daycare for a few hours each day. I surely couldn't have done my job if
he weren't there to do all of the other things.
Here are a couple of layouts that I did before all of this occured; but
didn't find time to photograph and post before. Hopefully I can get back
to creating very soon. This first layout is of my grandson, Levi, doing a
snappy dance routine.

This second layout is of my daughter Heather. She and I have been doing daycare together for twelve years. Even spending 8-10 hours together Monday through Friday,
we usually spend much of Saturday together too (shopping) and attend church together on Sundays.

Memory Tag

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I got this idea from Madeline's blog and thought it might be fun to try it here too.
The idea is to leave a comment about something that you remember of/with me. Something we've done together, or how we "met" (in person or online). If you have a
blog of your own, add this memory game to yours too and see how many memories you
get.

Unexpected photo

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I was looking through my photos from Door County again and thought I should post this one. As we drove from bay to bay I tried to snap a picture of a sign as we came into each new bay so I would remember which one the photos were of when I got home. Some turned out blurry, others were totally missed, but I was really surprised when
I saw this photo with my reflection in the rear view mirror! Kind of a neat momento
of our trip! Hope you get a kick out of it too!

Help a friend celebrate.........

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I'd like to help a friend celebrate the first anniversary of her blog. She is giving away a wonderful package of some of her best Halloween collage sheets. Please check out her blog and if you're so inclined, leave a nice comment (and tell her Sue sent you LOL). I know she'll appreciate it!
http://alteredartexpressions.blogspot.com/

Door County

Larry and I took a couple of days off and went to Door County. We enjoyed beautiful
weather for the entire three days and the scenery was spectacular! We stayed at a charming little motel called Julie's Park Motel in Fish Creek. Here are pictures of Larry and I in the giant Adirondack chair on their lawn.


We visited every little port city and bay; Sister Bay,Ephraim, and Egg Harbor, and
Bailey's Harbor and were amazed at all of the elaborate yachts that were in the slips at each one.

One of the highlights of our trip (besides all of the wonderful food!) was a visit to Cana Island Lighthouse. We were able to go to the very top of the lighthouse and got some great photos of the bay from that vantage point.



A photo through one of the portholes in the lighthouse.

And the stairs as we decended!!