Oh Christmas Tree

December sure is zipping on by, isn't it? So fast, that I think it has done a December disappearing act! My jaw hit the floor (THUD) this morning when I realized that it is the 20th already!!! I've been sick for a week, along with Hubby and our Princess. Our Monkeyman is the only one to have escaped this ....... tap, tap, tap ..... knock, knock, knock .... ... Pound, Pound, Pound ...... that would be me, being a wee bit superstitious and um, knocking on wood! I'm hoping we're all healthy for Christmas at the end of this week. The end of this week ????!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHH !!!!!!!!! (Yes, that would be me running .... screaming .... waving my hands in the air!!) AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe a little card talk will calm me down!! As soon as I saw Making Handmade Cards button eKits, I knew I wanted to use them to make a Christmas tree card with them! Tie in a little embroidery thread and a PTI bow and I was a happy gal!

Now, I'm usually a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas colors and I have a hard time deviating from the traditional red & green. I can add in some blues and metallics, But pink?! Well, my oh my, I took that leap across the canyon from the traditionally colored Christmas forest to the one colored a la Candyland...... and I liked it! A little fun with a Funky Christmas and button eKits, some ribbon corners, and more embroidery floss and a pink Chrismtas card sat in front of me .... it even makes me smile.:>

If you are curious about eKits, Sign up for the Making Handmade Cards free newsletter and get a free eKit to play with!

Back to life, back to reality (OH! that is sooo going to be stuck in my head all day now !).........

My inlaws arrive on Wednesday and my 'To-Do' lists are just a wee bit long. Those lists encompass all of this week's to-dos as well as most of last week's as well. Last week was my Monkeyman's last week of school this year and I was delighted to hear him sing "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Deck the Halls" in his Winter Concert. I got inky with some of Tim's tags and some SU Christmas tags for his teachers. But, mostly, in between taking care of my family, I curled up with a book, a blanket, hot tea, and read with the lights of our beautiful Christmas tree aglow, reminding me of my favorite time of year.

I hope you are enjoying this season! What holiday memories are you creating this year? If you don't celebrate at this time, what December delights are making you smile?

No Nesties? No problem!

Are you full into the swing of the Christmas season? We're getting there! And the weather seems to be cooperating with the idea of winter approaching. When I was a kidlet, I had the great fortune to enjoy a beautiful white Christmas as I lived in three different states with snow (on both coasts). Seeing a sunny California day when I am dreaming of a winter wonderland, sleigh bells ringing, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire......whoops.....apparently, as usual, songs are singing away in my head. But, I digress (I'm good at that!), we have been awaking to cold mornings and lots of fog, sealing us in for cozy days.

I'll bet you're wondering why I don't need Nesties, huh?! Okay, okay, I'll move along now!! :> I know my head is swirling with Christmas time fun, but I hope you'll indulge me with a little flower fun....yes??

Truth be told, I would LOVE some Nesties, but since I have none, I had to pull out some creativity and figure out another way to create my paper flower! I wanted a large scalloped handmade flower for my card, so using Microsoft Word, I drew a series of nested circles (which I then dragged apart, so that I would be able to cut them out individually). You could also cut out circles with a circle cutter, Coluzzle, Cricut, or any die cutter you have (probably those desired Nesties!). Using a touch of temporary adhesive, I adhered those circles to the back of my paper (in this case, printable paper from the Flower Train eKit from Making Handmade Cards) and pulled out an oldie, but a goodie..................scalloped decorative scissors!!

I never use decorative scissors anymore, but my kidlets do enjoy them very much, so they are still in the house and I am mighty excited to have found a great use for them! If you cut with the same point of the scissors (say either the point of the indent of the scallop or the top round of the scallop) hitting the same point in the paper (the edge of your temporarily adhered circle), your scalloped circles will come out even. See? A Nestie like nested flower with No Nesties! :>

My scallops were small and getting lost in the patterned paper, so to make them more pronounced, I added some much loved Stickles (oh, Stickles, how I love you so!) and set them out to dry. While waiting for my Stickled scallop circles to dry, I needed to distract myself......er, um, finish the rest of my card (yes, something shiny and sparkly and WET is very hard for me not to touch!). I printed another sheet from the Flower Train e-Kit for the background paper and adhered three ribbons in three different widths. Do you remember that cream ribbon that I custom colored with my Bic Mark-It that I posted about? Well, that top narrow blue ribbon is that very ribbon that started out cream!

Wanting to keep my scalloped flower three dimensional, I only placed adhesive in the center of the scalloped circles, including to the ribbon, so that all of the edges would pop up a bit. I used a bit more of my custom colored ribbon to tie off a hot pink button, placed the whole piece onto a hot pink card base and voila, a card for any occasion!

Who likes freebies?? Making-Handmade-Cards has a free Flower Doodle eKit if you sign up for their free newsletter! :>

I hope all of you had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving if you celebrated it! We had a cozy one with just Hubby and our kidlets. Two of my three closest friends (we miss you, Jilly!!) came up, one on Friday and the other on Thursday and it was absolutely wonderful to just hang out with them and spend time together. The rockin' Auntie who found the gluten & casein free chocolate advent calendar for my kidlets (to accomodate our son's diet restrictions) gave it to them and was able to see their reactions in person and my other girlfriend, who also rocks it out as an absolutely fabulous Auntie, french braided our Princess' hair....oh so sweet! Oh yea, did I mention that I did some serious tromping when we all played MarioKart on the wii??!! Oh yes, I did!! :>:>

Hope your week has been fab and that your weekend is to be even better! :>

Supplies:
Cardstock: Melon Mambo - Stampin' Up!; white (for printing the eKit papers on) - Georgia Pacific

Pattern Paper: Flower Train eKit - Making-Handmade-Cards
Ribbon: cream - Offray, Hibiscus Burst twill & Raspberry Fizz grosgrain - Papertrey Ink
Other: Mark-It - Bic; button - stash; Fruit Punch - Stickles; scalloped scissors