it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

It is starting to feel like Christmas in our home.  Boxes of Christmas decors and tree ornaments have been taken out of storage. The tree has been partially decorated. 50% of the gifts has been wrapped (with holiday music playing in the background). And all our overseas holiday cards have been sent out.  I hope to get the house ready for the holidays by this weekend.  My DD now has a lot to say on how the tree is to be decorated (not sure if that is a good or bad thing, lol).  So we will see if we can come to an agreement before this weekend is over.

Here is one of the Christmas cards I made for this year from one of my new favourite holiday sets from Papertrey, Bells and Boughs.  This was a set released last year and I was a little late getting in the bandwagon.   I bought it last spring after seeing so many wonderful cards created with it.  I bought it with the intention of creating Christmas cards throughout the year.  But life happens so here I am, almost at the end of the year, and still having a mild panic attack on the number of cards I still need to make. I guess I know what one of my resolutions is for next year...

And because cards look better in multiples, here's the rest of them...

Thanks for stopping by!  Is Friday here yet? 



Craft Books

I've been remiss in my blogging duties lately and there really isn't any valid reason except for the fact that I'm a slacker. 

I have a stack of craft books sitting in my closet. I look at the pictures in the books and they're really pretty and nice to look at but I have no motivation to start any project. Maybe it's the cold weather or maybe because I'm so busy at work. Oh well, who am I kidding...I'm just extremely lazy. I wish I was more like my craftmate, Irma, who is the most organized person I know. 

Anyway, speaking of craft books, here's the stack of craft books I have in my closet.

These are the sewing books with patterns inside. 

These books are for felt crafts.

Oh, and I had this crazy notion in my head that I would learn how to do embroidery, so I bought these books too. 

Hopefully, these books will be put to use soon. With the holidays fast approaching, I need to get going and start making gifts for friends and family. Who knows? Maybe I'll even surprise myself by starting an embroidery project. 

Till next time!

papertrey november blog hop

It's that time of the month again... 

This month is about getting inspiration from book covers.  Cover art can be a wonderful source to get those creative juices flowing.  Nicole provided us with this photo inspiration.

I chose the bottom middle cover, Liars, as my inspiration.  The electric fan immediately reminded me of a pinwheel so I went ahead and created this card.

I used the same colour palette as the cover and translated the air coming out of the fan as rolling meadows. 



I used pop dots to adhere my pinwheel and meadow to give it a bit of dimension

 I used Papertrey's cardstock (hawaiian shores, stamper's select white), stamp (Iconic Images for the sentiment), die (in the meadow), ink (smokey shadow) and impression plate (Linen and Canvass).  I also used patterned paper from MME's Lime Twist collection and a brad from my stash.

Close up of the linen impression on the white cardstock

As I was making my card, I was reminded of a layout I previously created here which had the same colour palette and used a pinwheel as my main embellishment. 

Hope you are having a nice weekend!  Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping!

school is cool - the inside story

The reason for my lack of new layouts lately is this...

We have been busy crafting for Frances' birthday party which I shared with you here.

I am back today with some details you might be interested in.   Remember this dessert table?

There are lots of details here so let's try to break it down, shall we?

First up is Bebsy’s fabulous bus cake.  Nothing short of WOW!  The inside tastes as good as how the outside looks.

Cake diva setting up her baby

And of course, her best selling cupcakes.  For this event, she made my three favourites (don't ask me to choose only one!)...

Strawberry Shortcake

Chocolate Banana



Red Velvet



Pretty soon, they were everyone’s instant favourites as well. 

Aimee did the rest of what I call “edible dessert art”.  I now call her Aimee Atlas! (after my personal dessert table goddess and "Sweets Stylist", Amy Atlas).  Guests were hesitant at first to get one for fear of ruining her art as each piece was meticulously hand crafted to perfection (at our house... the night before... until 12:30 am... yes, we had a little sleepover for  these babies!).   But it did not take long for them to give in and enjoy these eye candies. Delish!
  



Did you notice the jumbo red gum drop I used as a label stand?



Mango mousse topped with mint and strawberry gave it a refeshing look

These pretzel crayons were based on this recipe.  The contrast  of the sweetness of the candy melt and the saltiness of the pretzel made it an irrisistable treat! And how cute are the labels... my favourite is Crayon Eater :)

These cake pops were the first ones to disappear. 



My hubby created  the wooden cake pop stand... he's trained well



On the healthier side, we had cheese pencil made of cheddar cheese, hotdog end for the eraser and bugle chips coloured with edible marker for the tip.

And look at these adorable bookworms made of grapes skewered through a toothpick and topped with chocolate sprinkles for the eyes.  

Next up are these yummy apples made from pretzels dipped in red candy melts and topped with a green apple sour gummy.  They were placed in these adorable little plastic cubes I got at Party City.  And do you spot more flower lollies near the apples? Glue gun became my new favourite tool while I was making them.

And last but not the least, we have these darling notebooks made of rice krispies topped with white fondant.  Aimee did a great job lining them using edible markers.  The pencil is a pretzel stick covered with a yellow fruit roll up (and red fruit roll for the eraser) while the apple is a jumbo red gummy topped with a couple of green sprinkles.  I got the letters pre-made at Bulk Barn.

The blocks contained some treats inside and were given away for the kids to take home.

Here are some photos of the flower lollies and blocks after I have just finished making them.  They sat on top of  my shelf and this gave me a smile every morning.

  

And here are some photos of the Craftmates styling the dessert table before the guests arrived.

 

After the party, the little guests left with a library tote bag (to hopefully encourage them to read more). 

I got the tutorial from here.   Since I had to make 18 of  them, I did so assembly line style.  I cut all my pieces first, sewed the handles then the body and lining.  Once I was done with all the "parts", I then finally put them all together.

It was accompanied by a matching tag holder that will fit a library card. 

Inside the bag are a water bottle, reusable snack bag from Virns and a handful of crayons.

Here is the ensemble minus  the water bottle.

The moms also got this holiday planner...

which I packaged like this..

Lastly, here are the invitations I made using Papertrey's die (Card Base-ics #1), stamp (Little Hot Rod, Fruit Fusion: Apple, By Invitation) and a school-themed patterned paper from Michaels.  Since the patterned paper is not thick enough, I used a cardstock at the back to give it more support.  

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy thanksgiving to our friends south of the border!