Greetings from Computer Hell

I bought a new computer. To say the old one has "issues" is a mild understatement. Please bear with me as I attempt to get everything moved. Access to wesites and e-mail is challenging currently.....

Whatever you celebrate....

Happy Holidays! Happy Yule! Merry Christmas! Happy Solstice! Happy Kwanzaa! Belated Happy Chanukah! Did I get everyone? All I know is that the madness is almost over for another year, which, as Martha says, is A GOOD THING! I still have to slice meat and cheese for the appetizer plate tomorrow morning, and before I go to bed tonight, I have one more present to wrap. I'm on the laptop right now... .my PC is doing a full back up and it takes about 3 hours. I always forget to do them until something happens to remind me.....

A gal I know on Splitcoast that I actually met at convention this Summer had her house burn down this weekend. They pretty much lost EVERYTHING. I can't even imagine. They were out of town starting their long Christmas weekend when they got a call at 3AM Saturday. No one was hurt, but the house is a total loss. Her 15 year old daughter is taking it particularly hard, apparently. They also have a 17 year old son. They had taken their dogs with them, so nobody was in the house at the time. Kinda puts life in perspective, doesn't it?

Well, the laptop battery is telling me to log off.... Have a wonderful Holiday!!!!!

Just had to share.....

The closer it gets to Christmas, the more the public drives me INSANE. Saw this shirt and SO HAD TO HAVE IT!





He he he... isn't it FABULOUS??? I do love Happy Bunny!

It's cold and rainy here and will be for the next few days. Hopefully it will be clear next Monday. Nothing like Holiday traffic to start with. Add "road conditions" and it becomes a cluster unlike any other.....

They're done and GONE!

Just put my Christmas cards in the mailbox! YAY! The ornaments are done except for a few that I still have to put the ribbon on them. Shopping.... almost done. Just need to get the list from Russ of what I'm buying his family. Need to put Mom's present together and get that mailed on Monday. I wanted to send Judy her replacement Journal Monday, but I can't find the Michael's bag that has the journal in it. Still looking..... HOPEFULLY I will find it today and get that done tomorrow.

Got my layout for Janice's Circle Journal done and mailed out this week. I had planned to scan the pages and upload them here and then I FORGOT TO DO IT! Oh well.

I've been trying to get a decent photo of Taz to send out in the Christmas cards. No go. Here are the best from this week.... She's just not very jolly this year, I guess. Her response to the collar was to either play dead or look away. Or walk away. Got several of THOSE pix.... sigh.... Don't you love the little tags? "Jingle Cat" (heart) and "Holiday Princess" (snow cat) is what they say.

I am surprised she hasn't pulled the stockings down. They are hanging right over her toybox this year and I thought she might find them too interesting to resist. I know if I had Judy's crazy dog here they would be EATEN within 30 seconds! Judy tells me that Mocha is a poodle, but I think there is some goat in that bloodline somewhere.....

Got my Secret Santa present today.... highlights from that are a YUMMY bottle of wine, some darling wine glass charms and this totally AWESOME travel mug.... even has my name on it!

I think I know who my Secret Santa is, but I'm waiting patiently for the revealing which is later this week.

Need to bake some cookies to send in Mom's package. Need to get the last presents for Russ' family so I can get the wrapping done. Ten more days..... LOL!

Packages received! Now I can post!

So for my group of friends that I affectionately refer to as "the Spammies" or my "Spamily", I made some cute little altered domino Christmas ornaments.







I would love to tell you who makes the stamp I used, but it has LONG been buried in the Christmas avalanche of projects and will likely not be seen again until Spring! I sanded the blank side of the domino and then stamped the image in Black StazOn. The red and green are colored with Sharpie Markers and the grey is silver glitter pen. The beverage is Dazzling Diamonds glitter sprinkled over glue from a Quickie Glue Pen. The ribbon is from Michael's (it was wired, but I pulled the wire out) and is secured around the domino with 1/8" super sticky tape or "red liner" tape that I get from PennyWise Arts. They have an AWESOME selection of widths of this indispensable adhesive, reasonable prices and ship FAST! I added beads at the top and bottom for a little more "bling" and dabbed a little Crystal Effects around the holes for added measure. The numbered side of the domino is covered with a piece of patterned paper. This is my first time altering dominoes and will not be my last. They are a fun fast project.

Of course, now I needed something to put them in..... I scored some little tins at Michael's this summer on clearance for some ridiculously low price and they have been sitting, waiting for me to do something with them. (All papers, ribbon and inks used to decorate the tin are ©Stampin' Up!, as are the rhinestone brads.) I painted the tops white and then dusted them with Dazzling Diamonds while the paint was still wet for some added BLING!



I wrapped them in Always Artichoke Prints Designer paper and added 1/4" Real Red Grosgrain for the trim. Using my Crop-a-Dile I punched a hole through the tin and added a Fire Rhinestone brad through both the tag and the tin. The tag is from one of the retired tag sets and is stamped in Real Red craft ink on Whisper White and then layered onto Always Artichoke.

The Star on the top is done using the Large and Small Tag punches, vellum and a Quickie Glue Pen. You really need a fine tip glue applicator for this - makes it sooooo much easier! Here are instructions on how to make one. Searching the SCS Gallery, a lot of folks have done these with a double star, but since I was making 10 of them, a single layer was all I could muster! The center is a glass pebble using Gold Stickles to glue it down.


I filled the tin with shredded paper fill (WalMart) and then topped a little York Peppermint Patty with the scallop circle punch layered with Garden Green and Real Red circles as a gift card. The scallops are accented with a red glitter pen.



So that was my big project I have been working on for a while. The family ornaments are almost finished... I decided to add some little flat back rhinestone crystals to them... 4 on the snowflake side (1 in the center of each of the small snowflakes) and then 2 red ones on the sentiment side on the center of the little swirls between the words. It was a nice touch, but now I have them spread out all over my table again while the glue dries since I can only do one side at a time. SIGH. Maybe tomorrow I will actually get the Circle Journal done. I'll save the tale of today's embellishment odyssey for then.....

I've been busy.....

Working on Christmas projects. And no, my cards still aren't done. They are semi-started as in I've got the medallion piece done for 18 of them.... Yeah, not much progress. I got my packages out in the mail on Monday to the SPAM Ma'ams. Can't post a picture of that yet, as they haven't all been received, but when they are, I'll add a blog about them.


I *can* post this year's family Holiday Ornament (finally!).





The porcelain ornament is from Michael's. The snowlfakes (large ©Stampin' Up!; small ©Verve Visual) are stamped in StazOn Hydrangea Blue and the sentiment on the back ( ©Stampin' Up!) is stamped in StazOn Forest Green. These ornaments are glazed, so it's a little challenging stamping on such a slick surface, but fortunately, mistakes are easily removed with rubbing alcohol! After they hang to dry overnight, I heat set them with my heat gun, just for added measure. I plan on gluing a rhinestone or two to a couple of the snowflakes for some added "bling".


Still working on a photo of Taz with her FESTIVE holiday collar on. Not getting much cooperation. She doesn't seem to mind this collar I got, but it's just not in the holiday theme.....


Isn't she pretty???? She thinks so! Maybe I'll try the holiday collar again later this evening.... Wish me luck!

Everyone around me has had it.....

And the first cold of the season finally caught up with me! Oh well. Maybe I'll actually get some stamping done since the idea of actually getting out of sweats and putting on real clothes and shoes and leaving the house is just totally unappealing. Bubble bath, pot of tea and magazines. Now that's more like it. Sweats, space heater, stamp room. Perfect! Unfortunately, I didn't get the last string of lights up on Friday and now it's too cold and windy (especially when I'm not feeling great to start with) to put it up, so the 3rd section probably isn't getting done. Oh well. When the wind dies down, I'll hang the snowflakes and take a photo and post it. Hopefully we'll have a nice day later this week...

My goal is to get one of my projects done today and get them packaged up and mailed tomorrow. Yeah. We'll see how THAT goes.... I NEED to get Christmas cards done too otherwise it's gonna be a Hallmark Holiday.... bleh.

The Stampin' Up!® retired list was posted yesterday. Other than the six hostess sets I accumulated (which retire forever with each catalog now), I only had six sets retire and one of them I got at Regionals last year, so only five technically. The dormant list gets posted on Wednesday. We'll see if any of what I have left goes dormant. They only retired 2 sets from the last dormant list, the others carried over to the new catalog (or stayed dormant, I suppose). Of course one was a set I wanted, but my dear sweet friend Janice (aka Mama of THE HERD) is sending me hers.... YAY! I transferred my retiring sets to the other shelf today. I have WAY TOO MANY retired sets.... me thinks I need to list some stuff on ebay after the new year.... I only have 3 sets from the last retirement that have been taken off that other shelf and used in the last 6 months. Putting them over there helps me see what I really need to keep and what can go.... and I have a LOT that can go.... (Sorry Russ.... You probably shoulda stopped reading at the beginning of this paragraph....). Hoping to hold out on ordering TOO MUCH from the new catalog until February 1 when Sale-A-Bration starts. Mmmmm..... earning free stamps.... It's a good thing! I already have a list of cardstock colors I am running dangerously low on, so I KNOW I *will* place an order in January, but I'm hoping to keep it small.... yeah. We'll see how that goes.... LOL!

This summer when the current catalog came out, they shipped first to demonstrators who had ordered more than one box and I ended up getting a catalog from another demonstrator in town to mail to one of my customers. With catalogs shipping out at Christmas (they are aiming for 12/28 delivery), I decided to piggyback my order with another demo in the area who ordered 18 boxes last time so if they do the same thing and ship hers a day ahead of mine, I'll get them a day sooner. Those of you reading who get catalogs from me should expect that they will get mailed around the 31st. Trust me, you'll KNOW when I have them.... LOL!

Well, I'm off to make a bowl of soup and then head for the stamp room!