Sausalito, California

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Christmas Gnomes!

Before next year gets here, I wanted to show some of our projects from our Craft days that we had in December.  I love  making these cute gnomes from this video on youtube.  My sisters and I added some arms but still no sewing just gluing!!  Everything is from the Dollar Tree except the rice and beard fabric. I added some snowflakes to their hats later.  Making the nose was the most fun!!  Bigger the better for sure! 

These snowflakes are made from toilet and towel paper holders.  I dipped them in glue and then glitter.  The upper right snowflake I painted blue and then dipped in glue and glitter.  I have been saving my rolls for just this and I want to make more in the 2018!  There are lots of ideas for these on Pinterest but it is fun to do your own design! 




We didn't make it to my sister's house this year because of the blizzard here in the Northeast on Christmas Day.  We stayed home and had our Christmas with my daughter and son.  My son drove from California with his new puppy, Oscar.  It was so nice to have them all here under one roof. Oscar was so much fun!  He didn't like the cold because we noticed when we took him out that he kept lifting his paws.  He is a West Coast native for sure.

Oscar resting

Oscar playing
Blizzard outside!
My husband and I are getting ready for a New Year's Eve dinner/party for friends that we have been celebrating with for 15 plus years.  It is our turn for the dinner so here is a picture of the table. I made napkin poinsettas for our guests with a snowflake in the middle.  Our menu is lobster stew, seafood casserole, sweet potato casserole and spanakopita (Greek spinach pie), dessert and appetizer to be brought by friends.  I know what my resolution will be tomorrow as it is every year   -  Diet!!!
                                               Happy New Year  Everyone!!
More Gnomes in the background

Napkin Poinsettas

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Birthday Coffee Card

Stampin Up has this stamp and die set which was perfect for my brother-in-law's birthday card!  He can't start the day without his coffee like many people.  The doily for the background is a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die.  I used copics to color the latte and glossy accents to make the ice cubes shiny.  The inside of the card reads, "You are just like coffee, you  make everything better!"  I found the sentiment on Pinterest.
Happy Birthday Russ!
This fall I have been working on cards and gifts for friends and family.  I am glad that I started early because I could enjoy the Christmas season.  Below is a picture of  a test tube holder and  a small coffee tote to hold candy for friends.  I will add the links to each of these projects below the picture.  The paper I used was from Graphic 45 and Authenique.  Love both of these paper collections!  So pretty! Thanks for stopping by!

Love the Stampin up penquins!
The Link for the test tube holder -

                                                       https://www.pinterest.com/pin/34832597102848180/

The Link for the small coffee cup tote -

                                 http://www.inkingidaho.com/2013/12/merry-little-coffee-cups.html

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Christmas Window


Made this Christmas Card for my hairdresser.  Today is my appointment so I wanted to get this to him today.  This is a Waffle Flower window die that actually opens.  Loving it!!  I made a fun winter scene with Impression Obsession deer dies and Lawn Fawn hillside stitched dies for the scene.  Some glittery snowflakes which is a MS punch.  The "Merry Christmas" sentiment was just perfect from Papertrey!  Lastly, I used the Brightly Lit bundle from Stampin up for the wreath.  I am heading back to my craftroom right now to make another one since all of these stamps and dies were so much fun to play with. 

Also made this Christmas cup with a little sentiment from Stampin Up.  I have made a few of these cups but they are so easy had to make another one. 

Altogether
This is the second large second Christmas scene I have made with the Tim Holtz/Sizzix church die.  Love that little bell in the tower.  This time I have carolers and used a cloche.  I have had it lit up at night and it is so pretty.    Having a lot of fun this holiday season!  More to come!  Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy this holiday season!

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Christmas is Coming!

I got my Christmas cards done and mailed!!  Love Stampin up's "Hearts Come Home" bundle!  I made a bridge card with it.  Navy, white and Gold were my colors for Christmas this year.  I did make a few with silver instead of gold which was pretty too! The sentiment for this card is on the back which gives you plenty of room.  I made a regular 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 size card also, which is pictured below.  Also below, are some pictures of our first snowfall here in the Northeast - 4 inches of snow in this one storm.  The first snowfall is always the best --so pretty. 

Love this one too!
Our Christmas Tree!
First snowfall of the season!


Let the snowblowing begin!

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

December Birthday Girls

December Birthdays
First time, I think, I have made two different cards for my twin sister's birthdays!  I am so proud of myself because I usually make the same card for them.  Elizabeth Craft owl die is so cute, I decided to use it with an autumn theme because Chris and Connie's birthday is December 2nd which is actually autumn but then, winter is right around the corner so I made a winter theme for the other card.  Clever, right? 


Closer look at the front of the card

Back of the card
For this card I used a scenic platform type card.  The leaves are from Lawn Fawn which is stitched and the acorn is from Impression Obsession.  I made the tree free-hand which was easy because it is just a limb.  The Giant ladybug is from Sizzix which I haven't used in a long, long time.

Framed box card

Inside the box card
How cute is this stamp set from Stampin up???  I just love it!  The penquin and snowman are adorable!  I used Lawn Fawn  stitched hillside and mountain dies for the background.  This type of framed box card is fun to do too!  Happy Birthday Chris and Connie!  I am lucky to have you in my life!!

Friday, December 1, 2017

Christmas Craft Day


Loving Tim  Holtz/Sizzix House/Church die!  This was our project on Wednesday for Craft Day with 4 fun ladies!  3 of the ladies had not done any papercrafting and they did great!  We didn't break out the wine because everyone was so focused on their projects.  I wish I had taken pictures of them working but I forgot.  Tim Holtz has a tutorial on this die, putting the house together and then the steeple because they are different dies.  I love the little bell in the tower!  And the wreath is perfect!  My one tip is to use good heavy cardstock, not chipboard but 110 pound cardstock!  We did add a tealight inside with vellum on the windows and it is beautiful!! 

 I was ready for them with a paper tablecloth so glue didn't get on the wood table.  I did die cut the church and steeple for them so they just had fun with the glue/scorpal tape. They had to add design paper to the roof and steeple also the trees on each side of the door.  The wreath was just a sticker from Michael's but it was a great wreath!
 
One of the ladies finished church!

How cute is the bell!
Christmas themed
I made these little paper coffee cups for the ladies and put their accessories in them such as the bell, trees, wreath and tealight!  These were fun to make and only took me the night before 1 hour to make all 4 of them.  I will add the link to the tutorial below for these fun coffee cups.  Couple things I did different was to add panels inbetween each score lines (she stamped) also I added a circle to the base of the cup to cover up the layered paper strips.  (I hope this makes sense to you)  Have fun!  Welcome to the Christmas Season!! 

                                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sl2gQ2TWBw

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Happy Baby Girl!

My niece's baby shower was today and here is the card I made her!  It is a tent card using the Teddy/Panda bear and giraffe dies from Marianne Design.  The rocking horse, bottle and diaper pin dies are from Impression Obsession.  The paper collection is from Echo Park.  I took a picture from the side of the card and the back which shows the sentiment.

From the side


Cute baby feet!


Here are some pictures from the Baby Shower today.  My sister, Andrea, did a great job decorating for the party!  The cake was done by a friend of the father's mother.  She did a wonderful job using fondant.  My sister made the bottle and onsies cookies.  The due date for the baby is January 23rd and it won't be long before we find out her name!   It definitely was a fun day!

So pretty!

Little guests

Soups, casseroles, meatballs, Mac&cheese

Love it!

Who doesn't love a stuffed animal!

Gifts galore!

Thanks for coming!

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Thanksgiving Fun!


Place Holders
Last Saturday, I had a little craft day with my friend's granddaughter, Chloe.  I will show you at the end of this post what we made.  We had a lot of fun but my friends, Anna and Lynne both contracted me to make them these place  holders for their Thanksgiving dinner.  The total was 26 for both of their families and I just finished them this morning!  It is a box with a card which I will post the video instructions below.  I showed them this birthday box in a card and they were thrilled that I would make them.  I used different paper collections for these cards and I used dies from Lawn Fawn and Impression Obsession. The leaves from Lawn Fawn are stitched leaves which are so lovely.  The pine cones I got at Michaels which were the perfect size for these boxes.

The box is measured 2x2 which is plenty of room for a small gift or candy like Hersey's kisses.  I actually counted 14 Hersey's kisses would fit.  The instructions are below but I made a platform for the box - so instead of cutting out the 2x4 rectangle I cut it so that it made a little stand for the box.  I did it just so the card stood up a little better.  My only suggestion is to make sure you use thick cardstock for the base.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/ASPtWkgjznR8nofKOMQ0lP0TFgA42lFfIUrc1DG1iELzbth12vBRlNU/

Here are some more pictures of the Gift box in a card - I took them a little bit closer for viewing.

Sentiment is from SU

Closer look at the top of the box

Love the little pinecones
On Craft Day, we made little turkey favors out of toilet paper holders and pinwheels using We R Memory Keepers punch board.  The turkeys were made with a series of triangle cuts starting with the head. It was a success for all!!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Plain turkey

Decorated turkeys

Chloe's Pinwheel

Christmas Pinwheel

Friday, November 10, 2017

File Folder Album

For some reason I like making mini albums with file folders.  I think it is so creative plus there isn't as much cutting except to layer the album pages.  The paper collection is from Bo Bunny called Juliet which I have pretty much usedit all with the other projects that I have done this fall.  The video for this cute file folder album is below.  Try it out, it is really easy and fun to do!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AWjlL4ofApqAuXXnSBtp6RSuu9sna6Dy_j1Gd8zwxRapuVNGziNFq9U/

Here are some more pictures of the inside and the back of the album.  You can stand it up too!

Pockets on the inside
Pockets on the outside

Additionally, I made a sympathy card  and I used Tim Holtz's dies and Stampin up dies and paper. This was a simple but very pretty card.  Love Stampin up flower die - really makes this card!