There's a New Turkey in Town

I hope you had a beautiful Thanksgiving.  We had both my children, their spouses, 3 grandchildren, 3 grandparents and 1 great grandmother here and it was a beautiful day.  With my knee in such bad shape, everyone pitched in and prepared a beautiful meal.

Our oldest grandson has severe food allergies so I went looking for something special, just for him.  On Pinterest, I found the perfect solution --- a fruit turkey!  We got everything we needed to make it and, so I wouldn't have to stand too long to prepare it, my DIL stepped up and did a fabulous job!  I love it.  Benjamin was soooooo happy when he saw it and I think it really meant a lot to him that he got something special, too.  I guess I'll have to come up with a Christmas version of it.

In the photo, he's already eaten a piece or two:)

Here's what your turkey looks like fresh off the Weber.  My husband is a devoted Weber man and has been for many years.  The turkey looks gorgeous and tastes wonderfully delicious. 

I am not showing you the other side of the turkey.  My Weber man is also a turkey lover and he already had taken a few nibbles before I could get my shot of it:)

I tried to get a good shot or two of all 3 of the grandkids playing together, but they were all moving too fast to capture it all.  I put my camera down and just enjoyed playing with them.  Bill and I were going to have someone take a photo of us with the 3 grandkids after our dinner, but we totally forgot.  There goes that Christmas card idea!

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- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

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Happy Thanksgiving and a Beautiful Wreath

Happy Thanksgiving!  Today is a day to give thanks for all our many blessings and to remember to count them each and every day of the year.  I'll share a quick post with you today and then it's time to set the table for our family dinner.  This wreath has special memories because I bought the beautiful leaves for it while we were vacationing on the Outer Banks this summer.

Aren't the leaves gorgeous?  They were actually intended to be Christmas ornaments.  I cut off the cord for hanging them and attached them to my wreath.

The wreath is now hanging on the inside of my front door.  I love it and will think of the sea that I love so much each time that I look at it, along with the happy memories of our vacation there.  Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day.

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Hello, My Old Friend

As promised, today's card features an old friend that I brought back to play.  He's from our retired No Peeking stamp set.  We made this one at the Forsyth Library last Saturday.  When stamp sets retires, I usually give up as many as I can, but there are always a few that I just have to keep.  This is one of those sets.  I just loved it too much to say goodbye.

The penguin is on the inside of the card, with a punched circle window on the front so he can peek through.  I cut a separate strip for the embossed edge across the front of the card, to make it easier for any beginner stampers at the class.  I love the design on this embossing folder!  I think the perfect finishing touch was to give the little penguin some rosy cheeks:)

When I was asked to teach the holiday cards class at the library, the request was for winter cards that could be used by anyone wanting to make a card.  I designed the 3 cards to be used in a variety of ways.  These could be for a greeting for any winter occasion, even thank you notes or birthdays.  I took along a bunch of text stamps, so each person could choose what message they wanted to stamp inside their card.  Come back for my next post and I'll share the 3rd card we made.

Have a great day.  I hope you're getting all ready for Thanksgiving.  I will NOT be shopping on Thanksgiving Day or even the next day.  It's all family time for me and then back to stamping.  I have a big party to get ready to host on December 2, so I'll be spending the weekend changing out the remaining fall decor in my home and getting it to the totally Christmas stage.  I love doing it!  I like to make a lot of my own decor, so I'll be sharing some of my new projects several of my next posts.  Come on back and check it out.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Lovely as A Tree Card with Subtle Shimmer

Here's another card made with our oldest and most beloved stamp set, Lovely as A Tree.  We made this one at my holiday cards class at our Forsyth Library last Saturday.  I designed this one to be versatile enough to cover Christmas or most any winter occasion, just by changing the message inside.  This would be a good masculine birthday card, too.  It doesn't have to be necessarily just for winter, either.  We do have beautiful pine trees year round:)  I just think it has a wintery feel to it.

I stamped the tree onto Shimmery White CS, to give it a beautiful, subtle shimmer.  I cut the tree layer out with our Apothecary Accents framelits and attached it with Stampin' Dimensionals.  The ribbon is tucked behind it and wrapped around the embossed layer.

I really like adding tone on tone layers and used that technique again on this card.  To do this, I cut my top layer 1/4" smaller than the card base.  I chose a retired embossing folder to give added texture.  The final result is a beautiful card that is simple to create.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

A Peek at Some of My Christmas Projects

I've been having a lot of fun making all kinds of projects for Christmas... some with 'finds' from our antiquing/flea market trips and some from my 'stash' in my storage room.  When we moved to this house over 7 years ago, one of the features I really fell in love with was our huge storage room.  I immediately told my husband that he could have almost all the garage (I kept 1 tiny counter space) and I would take over the storage room.  He actually agreed (probably realized he didn't have a choice:) and I've pretty much filled it up.  It has Christmas decorations stored mostly under the stairs or nearby and all the rest is full of project supplies, seasonal decorations and odds and ends of things that haven't found a home yet.  It's kind of fun to pull out something and think of a new way to use it.

Here's a wonderful box that I found last summer at a flea market.  I painted it and filled it with Christmas greens.

It's at my Prairie Treasures booth, along with tons of  Christmas goodness.

Here's what it looked like before I painted it...

... and how pretty it looks being red.  It's happy now.  After Christmas, you could fill it with other seasonal decorations or think of lots of other ways to use it.  It's super sturdy.

Stop by my Prairie Treasures booth if you're in the area and enjoy a lot of bargains from now through Dec. 1.  Check out this adorable little red stool.  It was a dingy old bluish, brownish, yellow when I started with it.  I really wanted to keep it, but that's not why I bought it.  I'm hoping that someone will give it a home where it can be treasured by an adorable little someone for years to come.

Here's another peek at what I've made for my booth.  It's full to the brim, so I hope you'll go check it out and take home something wonderful for you or a special someone.

The fabric stockings are perfect for holding little gifts or even hiding gift cards.

These are cute little gift bags and boxes.  I have a variety of sizes and designs of wreaths, too.

The 2 Christmas plates would be great for giving cookies to a friend or neighbor or for leaving out a snack for Santa.  The little treat holders on my tiny Christmas tree would hold a variety of little gifts or goodies.

The framed decor would be great for you or a gift. 

There is a variety of Christmas cards, too.

I've added even more goodies since I took these shots, so be sure to check it out and get in on the sale.  If you stop by tonight between 5:00 and 8:00, you'll be able to participate in our Friends and Family event.  My sale will be going on through Dec. 1, so come by and help us celebrate our first anniversary at the Root Cellar (basement of the Wildflour).  Hope to see you there!!!

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Stamp-A-Stack for Christmas... Card 5

Before I share the last of my Stamp-A-Stack cards, I'd like to say that I had a fabulous time teaching my holiday cards class at our library yesterday.  It's always fun to meet new people.  Many of them had never stamped before and I had the pleasure of introducing them to the joy of creating something fun and beautiful. They did a great job.

While talking about scrapbooking, I mentioned that one of my special (ongoing) projects is working on my heritage album.  From that discussion came suggestions for my teaching a class on making heritage albums.  I would love that, but that's a whole separate post for another day.

Now, my last card for the Stamp-A-Stack.  Think snow!

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- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

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Stamp-A-Stack for Christmas... Card 4

I'm so excited to be heading for the Forsyth Library today for a big holiday cards class.  This will be a fun day.  Before I take off, I want to share another card from my Christmas Stamp-A-Stack class.  This card has some very subtle and very gorgeous shimmer to it, as well as the silver glimmer.

The texture comes from an extra tone-on-tone layer of Always Artichoke, embossed with tiny polka dots.  The subtle shimmer comes from stamping the tree on Shimmery White CS and the silver glimmer is from our Glimmer Paper.  I think I've gone through about 5 or 6 packs of it this week.  Expect to see a lot of gorgeous silver glimmer in the near future:)  I also added two strips of our gorgeous silver ribbon.

Come back to see a closer look at the snowman card and then I'll be moving on to other projects to share with you.  Have a great day!

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Stamp-A-Stack for Christmas... Card 3

Today's card brings back childhood memories... wishing for big packages under the tree.  How about a whole stack of presents... complete with a tag?  This card has a little stamping, a little layering and a whole lot of fun.

My color story is taken from the designer papers:
- Old Olive
- Cherry Cobbler
- Whisper White

Here again are all my Stamp-A-Stack cards:

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- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

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All Christmas Retreat Classes Closed

As of now, ALL my Christmas Retreat classes are now closed to registration.  It looks like it's going to be pretty busy in my studio.  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Stamp-A-Stack for Christmas... Card 2

Here's another card we'll be making at my Stamp-A-Stack this Sunday.  This one is clean and simple and yet very fun.  I think it may be one of my favorites.  It's all Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White.  The layers are the key to bumping up the 'wow' factor on this card.

 Here again are all the cards for my Stamp-A-Stack.

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Stuffing and Stamp-A-Stack... Card 1

As I write this post, my house is filled with the beautiful smell of stuffing.  My husband's Sunday School class is hosting our church's Thanksgiving Dinner tonight and he is making tons of stuffing --- one of his specialties.  While I fight the urge to go gobble some, let's take a look at one of my Stamps-A-Stack cards for this Sunday afternoon. 

Because Stamp-A-Stack cards need to be able to be made a little more quickly, I rely heavily on dies and punches to make the cards quick to assemble but still quite nice.  This one features our Festive Flurries dies, several punches and some Season of Style DSP.  A nice thing about the 3-D tree is that it will fold flat to put into an envelope.  Here are all the Stamp-A-Stack cards.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

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