Son of a Nutcracker!

You know what, we did not watch Elf this year, or any of the Santa Clause movies.  The only Christmas movie we did watch was the old animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas...and I watched quite a bit of Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring yesterday.  Don't tell me that's not a Christmas movie, it's got elves and snow and gift-giving and a man with a long white beard.  I also finished reading the book on Christmas Eve; I've been a little fixated on Middle Earth of late, which is weird because I first read the books about 15 years ago and then immediately sold them because I thought they were a slog.  I enjoyed Fellowship more this time around.

Anyway, on to the nutcracker!

I made the Santa card for the hubs to take into work so I couldn't leave out the stache-tastic nutcracker to go with him.  I chose a piece of Festival of Prints DSP and then colored the nutcracker to match and fussy cut him, so this is the card that took the longest out of all the ones I made.  I think he's pretty handsome though.

Okay, we're going to do Boxing Day celebrations with Bennet and Missy so I need to go make another apple pie and some other stuff.  The hubs is clearing out Ryan's room so we can paint in there this weekend.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Santa Stache
Ink:  Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Cherry Cobbler, Pecan Pie, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Neutrals
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Crushed Curry, Thick Basic Vanilla, Festival of Prints DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Santa!!! I Know Him!

Merry Christmas, y'all!  I made about eleventy billion cookies yesterday, then reorganized the guest room closet (since we had everything out of it to paint in there over the weekend), then ran a bunch of errands, then came home, made tacos for dinner, and made another cookie dough and a batch of pie crust.  I have an apple pie in the oven for the hubs right now : )  I'll be making that last batch of cookies today too, gotta be ready for our visitor tonight.

It's Santa!  Hope we still have cookies by bedtime tonight, we've all been grabbing them whenever we go in the kitchen : )  And that's why I made so many!  Plus we're going to share with friends on Boxing Day.  Anyway, this Santa card is one of the ones I made for the hubs to give out to his coworkers.  This stamp set is quite old (I think we lived in England when it was released, and that was over 10 years ago!) and I wish it had dies for everything, not just the mustache shape.  Remember when mustaches were ridiculously and inexplicably popular and people would have mustaches tattooed on the side of their fingers?!  What a weird time.

Anyway, I'm going to go check on my pie and take an inventory to make sure I get everything I need at the store.  I know I need butter and vanilla...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Santa Stache
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Poppy Parade, Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Thick Basic White, Snowy Scenes DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Baby Books: December

Scrappy Monday, peeps!  The hubs is off work today for Columbus Day which almost made me forget it's a weekday.  And to celebrate, we're painting the bathroom!  Yay?

Anyway, to my everlasting surprise, the twins for whom I made these baby books are still baking.  Seriously, I was surprised that mama made it to October first, much less today.

Preeeeetty sure they'll be here by Christmas though.

You might recognize this Santa Claus from last year's Santa Stache stamp set.  I love him, he's so cute.  I heat embossed him with Smoky Slate EP and then colored in his hat and face.

And of course Santa needs at least one reindeer, so there ya go.  Pretty sure this is Blitzen.

The color palette du jour:  Garden Green, Real Red, Midnight Muse, Marina Mist, Smoky Slate, and Whisper White.  And now my hubs is calling me to go start painting in the bathroom.  Wish us luck and cheers, peeps!

Supplies, almost all SU!
Stamps:  Santa Stache, Warmth & Wonder
Ink:  Versamark, Real Red, Midnight Muse
Paper:  Garden Green, Real Red, Midnight Muse, Marina Mist, Whisper White, Nordic Noel DSP
Accessories:  Deco Lables and Circles Framelits, Smoky Slate EP, Sizzix Alphabet

2014 Showcase, Part 3

It's the final part of the 2014 Showcase :)  Let's take a look.

Fall Fest, Four You

For September, I love this pumpkin birthday card that I sent to a good friend of mine.  Plus the color combo of orange, green, and purple is just fantastic.

Perfect Peacock, Work of Art

October's pick is this golden peacock because I love the colors and all the gold.  And also peacocks make me think of my mom, who has quite a bit of peacock stuff in her house.

Bright & Beautiful, Gorgeous Grunge, A Dozen Thoughts

For November, I had another tie and this Northern Lights card was one of them.  I thought that my background wasn't going to work at all right up until I actually finished it, and then I loved it!

Fall Fest, Perfectly Preserved, My Paper Pumpkin

And the other November fave is this pie-riffic Thanksgiving card.  That sentiment stamp is just SO me.  And I do love both apple pie and pumpkin pie.

Santa Stache, Nacho card!

Last but not least, I couldn't resist this Santa and his oversized mustache.  This card just makes me smile :)  Not a bad way to end the year.

So starting tomorrow is a whole new stampy adventure!  Happy New Year, friends!

Merry Christmas 2007

Merry Christmas!  Today I've got the last layout I did for 2014 to share, and it just so happens to be pictures from exactly seven years ago today.

I'm a little sad to say this layout sat on my desk for two or three months before I finally got it finished.  And then it took me 20 minutes to find my journaling template so I could draw straight lines on my journaling block, but I finally got it finished!  This was Christmas Eve at my parents' house, and it just so happens that the hubs and I are here again today!  With those same four dogs plus one more (my brother didn't get his dog Dingo until after this particular Christmas, but Sadie, Vader, Ginger, and Cleo are still in the club).

Some detail shots:

I was going to do snowflakes, but then I remembered why I hate my snowflake Sizzlits.  They don't really cut all the way through the cardstock and they're a total pain, which is why Framelits are better.  But I went with the retired ornament punch instead.

I know I shared a Santa Stache card yesterday, but I couldn't resist using this nutcracker on my layout today!  Even though the mustache thing wasn't a thing in 2007, he's still too cute for words.  I actually had to stamp him twice; I colored him with watercolor wonder crayons but of course there isn't a Gumball Green crayon.  So then I tried to just watercolor with the ink, but weirdly it turned out like camouflage (so not what I was going for), so I had to start over on a new nutcracker image and I used Garden Green crayon instead.  Problem solved.  I did use markers for the tinier bits of his outfit though, the More Mustard trim and Real Red circles.

Merry Christmas!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Santa Stache, Tall Tales Numbers, Chrsitmas Greetings, Delightful Decorations
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Ballet Blue, More Mustard, Basic Black
Paper:  Real Red, Ballet Blue, Whisper White, Gumball Green DSP
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Lucky Stars EF, ornament punch

Nachos: Staching Through the Snow

Good morning, peeps!  How are you this Christmas Adam?  Think about it...tomorrow is Christmas Eve :)  Anyway, as an early Christmas present, Nacho Average Challenges has a most excellent sketch for you!

I love this sketch.  You can use it six ways from Sunday and it will always look good.  So here's one more Christmas card for this year:

Can't help it, I love this card.  That Santa just looks so cheerful and that patterned paper makes me happy.  And when I was using the SAMJ to do the sentiment, I noticed that I'd gotten it curled up just a little so I made it curve a little more and I love how it turned out.  The rest of the sentiment is on the inside:

Quick and simple.  The only part that took me some time was cutting out the Santa, and even that wasn't arduous.

Merry Christmas, and I hope you'll join us for this sketch challenge :)  Check out the Nacho blog for more eye candy!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Santa Stache
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Blushing Bride, Whisper White, Garden Green, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Real Red, Whisper White, Nordic Noel DSP
Accessories:  Banners & Labels Framelits, Lucky Stars EF, Dimensionals

The Man in Red

It seems like I've been doing a lot of things with Endless Wishes lately and not using the other Christmas sets I have, so today I decided to break out Santa Stache and make something.  What do you think?

I considered getting some white ink refill and using it to watercolor Santa's beard and part of his hat, but I kinda liked this the way it is, simple white-on-red.  The thing that took the longest on this card was deciding on the patterned paper :)  I used the brand-new sketch from Freshly Made:

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!  I made the background panels larger but definitely followed the sketch.

Well, that's it for me today, peeps.  I still need to write my Christmas letter and get packages ready to send and about a hundred other tasks before Christmas....cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Santa Stache
Ink:  Versamark, Garden Green
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Real Red, Nordic Noel DSP
Accessories:  White EP, Dimensionals

Nuts to You

When I was in high school, the cafeteria sold these ice cream cones called Nuts to You, which was a knockoff of drumsticks.  Loved those things.  But today's nut isn't ice cream, it's a nutcracker!

I seriously thought about ditching this dude for another fall card today--I'm one of THOSE people who likes to have Thanksgiving before getting all Christmas obsessed--but he's just so stinkin' cute I couldn't resist.  I used the sketch from Just Add Ink and this card was super quick!

Ok, gotta hurry now; I'm getting picked up to go to the gym in a few minutes.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Santa Stache
Ink:  Versamark, Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist, Crushed Curry, Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso
Paper:  Marina Mist, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, Trim the Tree DSP Stack
Accessories:  Mustache die, Dimensionals, Early Espresso EP