Christmas cookie layouts

I was so excited today about using my cookie press, that I took pictures and just now did a digi layout about it. I know that's totally silly, but hey, it's those silly, little things that make special memories! Things have been so busy around here and I really haven't had much time to scrap. I think that this is the busiest that I have been in a long time during December! I had two Christmas parties to go to, lunch with friends who I used to work with and I have been on a serious baking kick. Plus, I have been crocheting bunches of wash cloths from 100% cotton. So, I have lots and lots to share and I hope to do that soon!

But for now, here are a couple of digi layouts that I have done these past couple of weeks....
This one is about our yearly, Christmas tradition of making sugar cookies. I use the same recipe that my mother used when I was a child and nothing reminds me of Christmas when I was a child more than these cookies! They are so good! We will be making some of them tomorrow (the second time this holiday season!), so I will get some good pictures and share the recipe. Yum! Everything that I used for this page is by Shabby Miss Jenn Designs.....I just LOVE her digi kits!!!!
Here is a layout that I finished this evening. My good friend made spritz cookies the other day and I reminded me that I had a cookie press lost somewhere in my cabinets. I found the press at a garage sale ages ago and I hadn't ever used it! So, today, while it was raining and sleeting outside and everything was being covered by a thick layer of ice, I decided to make spritz cookies! I knew that we wouldn't be going anywhere (and won't for several days!) and that some fresh cookies is just what we needed! We are expecting 6-10+ inches by Christmas Day! So, since this was such a huge event today......finally using this age-old cookie press that I've been carrying around with us for the past 15+ years and almost as many moves, thanks to the Air Force.....I took pictures and did a layout! Once again, everything that I used for this layout is from Shabby Miss Jenn Designs, except the template which is from Weeds & Wildflower Design Life 365 Kit and the green, circle tag and journal block which is also from Weeds & Wildflower Design.

I hope that you are all ready for Christmas and that you have a wonderful and magical day with your family and friends celebrating the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

Some ornaments to share......

Here are a couple of ornaments that I was able to make last week. We were totally snowed in for three days, so it was nice to have some fun projects to work on!
This little house ornament is inspired by this ornament that I found at the Orange Flower blog. My printer wasn't talking to our computer server when I decided to do this ornament, so I had to totally wing it with the pattern. I forgot that the original had windows and guessed on what size to make everything else. I still think that it turned out pretty, darn cute! The house is made from a scrap piece of white flannel and red scrap fabric that was left over from the tree skirt that I sewed last year. I embroidered on the year and I'll tell you about those flowers in a minute!
For this ornament, I used the pattern that I found at the author Jan Brett's website. I absolutely love her books! This heart ornament is made from white paper and red patterned paper. I added some rhinestones to each crossing of the paper, because I was trying to think of a way to jazz it up a bit!
Now, for the flowers, I used the tutorial that I found at Cheeky Magpie to make them. I really had a fun time making these and I can't wait to make some more! I used my Prima flowers and I just had to add some Diamond Dust to them....lol I think it kinda looks like snow on them and since we got over 12 inches of snow while I was working on these ornaments, it seemed fitting to add snow to my flowers. lol

I'm not sure if I will have time to make any more ornaments, but I hope that I can. I have started working on some 100% cotton, crocheted wash cloths for my kitchen and a couple of gifts. It's fun to be doing something different and still creative with my hands! And, we are getting more snow today and ice today. My kids missed three days of school last week! This is their last week of school before Christmas Break and I'm sure that they are hoping and praying that we have another snow storm roll through. Starting Christmas Break a few days early would really make them happy!

I do have lots more that I want to share with you all. Some favorite recipes and some great crafty links that I have found that you don't want to miss! I hope you are all doing well and keeping warm!

Recycled Can to Christmas Gift Container

I am one of those people who can't throw any thing away, because I know that I'll be able to use it for something, sometime, somewhere......lol Here is a perfect example! We always pick these little cans of cashews up when we go to our local home store and I knew that I could use them for something. So, when when the design team at Practical Scrappers was challenged to create a gift wrap idea, I knew that this was the project I had to do! Everything that I used for this project was from my stash or recycled from some other source.
For this project, I used a light-weight patterned paper. I lined the bottom edge of the paper along the edge of the metal ring at the bottom of the container and made a pencil mark on the paper where the inside of the top metal ring was.
I used that line to cut along the whole length of the paper.
Next, I wrapped the paper around the can and made a pencil mark, letting the mark overlap the bottom paper about an inch or so. Then I used my paper trimmer and cut where the pencil mark was. Then, I used my glue runner and put along one of the short ends of the paper and placed the paper on the can making sure that it was centered. I then added adhesive to the top and bottom edges of the paper as I wrapped the paper around the can.
Now you can decorate the can more or leave it as it is! I found some thin strips of vellum in my paper stash and decided to cut along one edge with my scallop, deco scissors and adhered a piece to the top and bottom edge of the can. That clear, circle glob is a big, glue dot and I used to add the tag. :-)
For the tag, I stamped a candy cane in red ink and then colored it in with a red marker. Then I added some Crystal Effects over the candy cane and then sprinkled it with some Diamond Dust. After it was dry, I cut the candy cane out and added it to the tag.
For tFor the tag, I just stamped the sentiment onto a piece of watercolor paper and then went over each letter with a blender pen that I had picked up some red ink with. It is double mounted on a scrap piece of the patterned paper and then a piece of yellow paper. I rubbed the edges of the yellow paper with some course sand paper and also along the top of the star that I punched from a piece of yellow, corrugated paper. I adhered the candy cane on, added a small, red bow and topped the bow with the yellow star and then put the tag on the container using the glue dot. The finishing touch was stuffing the container with some yellow, crinkle paper that I saved from some Christmas gift boxes that we had received last year. I always save the stuffing from those boxes, because I use it all of the time for gifts that I make all of the time!

And here you go! The finished container! And, a great way to recycle!

Beary Merry Christmas card

This is a card that I made for this weeks challenge to make a Christmas card at Practical Scrappers. This card didn't turn out at all like I had first planned! It's amazing how you start with one idea, but as you start creating your muse takes you off in other directions and you end up with a complete surprise! The idea for my card totally turned when I stumbled upon a small doily in my white embellishment drawer. After I decided to use that, the rest of this card came together really fast. I stamped the image from Stampin' Up! in brown ink and then colored it in with Stampin' Up! markers and a blender pen. I am trying really hard to avoid Copic markers! I WANT them really, really bad but I don't NEED them. My Stampin' Up! markers are all working totally fine and I just can't justify buying new markers at $6.50/$7.00 a piece when I have something that works just fine right now. So, maybe as my SU! markers start drying up, I'll start replacing them with Copics. Anyway, I have found that marking on an acrylic block with the brush end of my marker and then picking up the ink with a blender pen can give me almost the same results as if I had used Copics. The colors aren't as vibrant, of course, but I as I practice I have been able to do some really good shading with my SU! markers. The ribbon is from a package that we got for Christmas last year from Harry & David, or some place like that. Save those ribbons ladies, because you never know when you can use them! I LOVE to recycle things like that! Take care! :-)

Covered Jelly Jar

Here is a fun and easy project for jazzing up your homemade jars of jam and jelly for Christmas gift-giving! At Practical Scrappers, they will be sharing a new Christmas project EVERY DAY, so be sure to visit often so that you don't miss all of the amazing things that will be shared there until Christmas!

We went to a local apple orchard in August and came home with a huge bag of Gala apples. I made apple butter and cinnamon-apple jelly and I thought that they would make super gifts for my neighbors this year. So, I decided to make some fabric jar covers to turn them in to festive gifts!
For this project I used a piece of fabric from my fabric stash basket and some ball-edge trim. I bought a yard of the trim, because it was only $.45 a yard.
I used a saucer to trace a circle onto the fabric. I just used an ink pen to trace with. Then, I cut the circle out and sewed on the trim. I did not turn the edges down on the fabric. I guess it would have made the back side look cleaner if I did that, but I am hoping that no one will turn this over and inspect it and say, "Wow. She should have finished this side by turning the edges under!" lol It honestly looks just fine with the edges raw and the trim covers it up anyway on the front side, and that's what's most important!
I did use one of my special feet for my sewing machine to sew the trim on. It is open on one side so that the balls on the trim had room to go by as I sewed. I didn't use any pins or anything.....I just sewed a long very slowly and adjusted the trim on top of the fabric as I sewed a long. I think that this kind of trim was the easiest, because it was easy to make the sharp curve of the circle with out bunching up or anything like that. So, I would pick out a trim that is very flexible for this project.
Here's the finished fabric piece! You can see a bit of the red fabric showing through the top in this photo. I took some sharp scissors to trim that off as close to the stitching as I could.
Now for the fun part! The circle that fits in the lid....... ;-) I traced around the outside of the metal lid onto red card stock and then used my circle cutter to cut a circle just a little bit smaller than what I had traced. This way I know it will fit inside of the lid. Then, I made another circle but out of white, watercolor paper. I made this circle so that it is about 1/8-1/4 inch smaller than the inside circle of the metal lid. I stamped the image in a chocolate-brown and colored it in with a blender pen and my Stampin' Up! markers and then I sponged red ink around the edges of the circle. I then centered the fabric circle on top of the jar, placed the red circle of card stock inside the lid and then screwed the lid ontop of the jar. Next I adhered the white circle in the center of the jar lid. I wrapped some green, gross-grain ribbon around the lid and adhered it together with some glue. I folded the ribbon over so that I was able to create a small loop of ribbon to hang the tag off of.
For the tag, I cut a rectangle from red card stock and wrote "Apple Butter - made with Honey" on one side of the card stock. Next I cut a piece of green, gross-grain ribbon, attached one end to the tag, slipped the other end through the loop on the lid and then adhered that end to the tag, so that the tag is now attached to the jar. I punched out a big snowflake and added it to the side. Then I punched a small circle, stamped the stocking on it and colored it in and then went around the edge with red ink on a sponge and placed it on top of the snowflake.

And there you have it! A cute and festive jar of preserves! I hope that all of my directions made sense. If you have any questions, please ask! And also please share if you make some of these, because I sure would love to see you're creations!

Wedding Pillow - Practical Scrappers Challenge

The challenge for this week at Practical Scrappers is sewing. I was going to make something new but with it being Thanksgiving weekend, my time got a little lost doing other things! Then I remembered that I had this pillow that I made years and years ago and I thought that it worked just perfectly for this weeks challenge! The idea is from an old Family Circle or Women's Day magazine. I cut out a big heart shape from a paper sack and used that as a pattern to cut two pieces of fabric. Then, I started sewing on all sorts of goodies to the top piece. Ribbon, lace, buttons, ribbon flowers, etc. I then made a frame from some flat lace to hold the photo. I sewed the front and back together and there ya go! A fun memory pillow! The picture is of me and my husband right after we got married and one of my all-time favorite photos of us. I've had this pillow on my bed for a LONG time! lol We will be celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary this June!

I hope you're all having a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Delight in the Day - card - Practial Scrappers

This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers a sewing. For my card, I cut out several circles of patterned fabric and then used my sewing machine to sew them together in what I can best describe as a wagon wheel spokes. I added a button to the center and use adhesive to attach it to the card base.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day! I am writing out my grocery list right now and then it's off to the store! My mother is driving up and should be here later this afternoon. It's going to be a wonderful and busy week!