Paper Craft Card #71paper

It's time for the Paper Craft Crew challenge this week.  MDS to the rescue again!  I have been super busy trying to get my Christmas shopping done in time for our family party on Sunday.  I think I finished today!  I'm even going to use My Digital Studio for my Christmas cards this year.  I printed out a design today and took it to Staples to have it copied (4 to a page).  Tomorrow I hope to do some sponging and mount the image onto cardstock to finish them.
 
Without further ado, here is Challenge #71:

Are you making the rounds of all the Christmas parties and eating too much???  Well, I am.  As I'm writing this, I'm still stuffed from my neighborhood bunco Christmas party tonight.  I had actually forgotten about it as I don't usually play bunco during the year.  It seems I go a couple of times a year.  Anyway, about 6 pm, I'm checking my email and there's the reminder of the Christmas bunco party.  We were supposed to bring a gift ($20 range) and pot luck dinner.  I always have a few spare gifts in my "stash" so that was not a problem but my cupboards are rather bare.  But I was able to find an unopened pack of cream cheese and I had a jar of jalepeno jelly and some crackers, so, voila! I was in business!  My luck at the bunco table was not great tonight - I only won 2 games out of 6!  We only played one round after we ate and then did the Chinese gift exchange where you can steal a gift or open a new one.  My luck is never good although yesterday at bridge, I ended up with a very nice set of little Christmas dessert dishes that I really like.  I thought I was home free tonight. I was #11 (out of 22) and I stole a really cute stuffed snowman and held on to it until the very end.  Then the gal that was #1 got to have one last steal before the night was over and she took my snowman and I got her present which was the same gift I had brought tonight!  So guess that gift will be traveling to another Christmas party in the future!!

Clearance Rack Blitz!!

 

 

 

Who doesn't like a great deal?  Especially on some old favorites!

 

Buy yourself a Christmas present!!

Stampin' Up! is going to be filling the clearance rack with never before posted retired items.  Up to 80% off!  They are clearing out the warehouses and YOU are going to benefit.
  

If it's your first time online shopping you will need to create your profile,
you may want to take care of that now, so you are ready to shop later.

If you do not shop online, you may call me or e-mail me
and I will place your order for you. See info in the blog header to contact me.

 Remember this sale is "WHILE SUPPLIES LAST".

 

Click on CLEARANCE in the tab above.

Time for another CLEARANCE BLITZ!

Clearance Rack Blitz:
A new Clearance Rack Blitz begins December 10.  Retired products-up to 80% off-will only be available while supplies last.  If you place an online order, please use the Hostess Code when prompted - RADZVCQJ
Also, Sara Douglass filled in for her mom, Shelly, on the Today show last week.  You can see the video HERE.

I realized I did not share the Thanksgiving pictures that I took.  Unfortunately, none of us took too many pictures .... too busy visiting and eating!!

Ashley, Grandmom Betty and Girlfriend (Sharon)

Sharon gave me this Friendship Basket with a few adult beverages in it for Sonny and I.  Isn't it beautiful?

Marianne and Sharon made the candle decorations and place cards. 

Plenty of food for everyone!!

Girlfriends!

The table is set.

I made these a year or two ago and just "spruced" them up a bit this year.

Place settings on the table made by Marianne and Sharon

thank

Yummy Cookies!

Ashley and I usually make sugar cookies at Christmas.  We have tried many different recipes with good and bad results.  I have a new recipe to try this year that I got from a DIY website.  Maybe you'd like to try it too.  If so, here it is - put it in a safe place so you can find it!!

SUGAR COOKIES

Dry Ingredients:
6 cups of Flour
2 teaspoons of Baking Soda
1 teaspoon of Salt

(mix together is small bowl)

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup Shortening
2 cups Sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup Sour Cream

(Blend wet ingredients until smooth in large bowl)

Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients.

Cover and place in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Roll out cookie dough. Use your favorite/festive cookie cutters.

Bake at 400 for 7-8 minutes.  Let cool.

 In the meantime, make the frosting.

Blend all together:
1/2 cup Shortening
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
4 cups powder sugar
2 Tablespoons milk

Dye the frosting whatever color your heart desires.. and taste the beaters if you like :)

Where Does the Time Go? Paper Craft Crew Challenge #70!

Wednesday already and I haven't posted yet and Wednesday is going fast!  Where is the time going??  My December is going by and according to my date book, will be going by in a flash!  I think I only have about 4 days free until we go to San Antonio Dec. 18.  I had to make an unexpected dentist visit and was lucky to be able to schedule it in the late afternoon after my bridge party next week.

Today was our Newcomer's Christmas party and, WOW, was there a lot of food.  But not as much as in the past.  Usually everyone brings a dish and it is overwhelming with about 100+ people all bringing food!!  This year the alphabet was split in half.  The first half brought a dish to share and the second half brought a bag of canned goods for the Soup Kitchen.  I was in the second half but I took pity on one of my friends who doesn't cook and volunteered to make a dish for her.  Another gal was supposed to do it but she wasn't able to come today.   We loaded three cars up with food to take to the Soup Kitchen pantry!!  Along with the food we took, we also made baskets for the seniors in the community who are not as well off as some and we brought toys and/or clothing for the children who are in need.  These items were loaded on a Christian Missions truck for distribution at Christmas.

Toys for the children

Children toys

Some of the clothing for the children

Senior baskets

More Senior Baskets - think we counted 68!!

Starting to load the items onto the truck - a really foggy day!

Plenty of food for everyone and more being brought in!

OK - on to my Paper Craft Crew creation for this week.  I turned to MDS and Season of Style Pocket Card kit to create this festive card:

More of Ashley's Creations

Thought I'd share the rest of the cards Ashley made while she was here.  Not too bad considering we were only in my craft room a day and a half!!  Wish I could say I got this much accomplished!

Framelit Card she made for a friend who is getting out of the Army in a few days trying to decide what is next in her life.

Framelit card closed

Simple card using Apothecary Accents sizzlits

She had a hard time with this one but finally got the rectangle cut out in the center with my exacto knife.

Very similar to the previous card - just didn't use the knife!!  Uses Delicate Doilies stamps.

Ashley's Creative Cards

Ashley was here for a fast week and we stayed pretty busy, as usual.  We stayed home on Friday and most of Saturday and played around in my craft room.  Ashley made some great cards and I managed to take pictures of them before she packed them up.

Beautiful Butterflies!  She got the inspirations from this framed picture.

This is a mask Ashley used to make the flames on the card below - Gorgeous Grunge stamp

Candles and flames using Gorgeous Grunge

A simple but elegant wedding card for one of Ashley's best friends from medical school.

Paper Craft Challenge

This was my sketch challenge for last week's Paper Pals Challenge.  I decided instead of doing a card this week, I would do a scrapbook page to represent fall and our recent trip to Greenville.  I used the Wonderfall kit for this.

 

 

A Card for Kimberly

Here is a card I made using My Digital Studio.  One of my Stampin' Up fellow demonstrators is going through a tough time and I made the card for her.  Kimberly Van Diepen's (StampinByTheSea) husband suffered a stroke last week ... actually he had two strokes suffering the second one after he was moved from ICU to a regular room.  He is doing better now - still hospitalized - but making progress as he was able to sit up for 3 hours today.  Hug your loved ones - you just never know.  Kimberly's prince (that is what she calls her husband - their's is a true love story!) is only 43 years old - too young for this to happen!

Greenville Mouse Hunt

We picked Ashley up last Friday night at the Greenville/Spartanburg airport and spent the weekend in Greenville.  It was a lot of fun.  She ended up bringing Bogart (her cat) with her and didn't get charged for him.  He was in his carrier and she draped her coat over it, got on the airport and slid it under the seat.  Bogart is a mute cat so he didn't make any noise.  Sammie was not excited to see Bogart when we got home Sunday night though!  Hopefully, they will start getting along soon.

We stayed at the Hyatt in downtown Greenville and spent Saturday just wandering around downtown and shopping.  I got a couple of Christmas presents bought so that was a good thing.  A lot of the trees were showing off their beautiful colors.

 

 

 

While we were there, we went on a mouse hunt!  For his senior project at Christ Church Episcopal School in 2000, Jim Ryan proposed the idea of installing a family of nine unique mice sculptures in surprising places along Greenville's Main Street from the Hyatt to the Westin Poinsett Hotel. His original idea spun from the book, Goodnight Moon, which he and his mom read every night when he was small. There are nine mice pictured in that story. Ryan made his way through the red tape involved in any city project and then raised the money, with the assistance of donors and the mayor, to complete his project.  Greenville sculptor, Zan Wells, actually created the mice. She and Ryan became a team, and Wells sculpted nine individual bronze mice, each one with his own look, character, and special place on Main Street.  Ryan and Wells placed the mice in their permanent places, thus creating Greenville's fanciful downtown scavenger hunt.