These are the cards I made to send out this year. The blue card is modeled after an Archiver's sample in their flyer. I saw it and I just had to make those cards! The cardstock is from Archiver's. The dove and "Merry Christmas" is from Hand Drawn Christmas from Hero Arts. The swirls are also Hero Arts, Fantastic Flourishes. The dove is stamped in CTMH Grey Flannel, the others in CTMH Spring Iris. The dove is also chalked with glimmer chalks, which you can sort of see in the olive branch. This is the card that went out to most folks.
Close friends and family got (or will get) one of the red/green ones. Sorry, but they're just too much work to make 50! Except for the cord and the white card base, all materials are CTMH: The colors of CS and ink are Ponderosa Pine and Cranberry, stamped on Colonial White CS; the tree, heart and star are Homespun Christmas; the corner adornments are Playful Petals; "for you" is Tiny Typewriter; the flourishes are from 'Twas the Night before Christmas (retired). The original design is taken from the CTMH Fall/Winter 2007 Idea Book and Catalog, although the original highlights the Victorian Snowflakes stamp set, which I didn't use. The 3-D dangles are threaded under the "for you" (which is raised with pop dots) and hung on a brad on the inside of the card, so one can hang it on the tree if desired.
I should also apologize for the blurry pictures; I obviously didn't check for clarity before I gave them away!
Wow, it's been a month since I last put up a scrapbook page! Well, it's because I've been getting ready for Christmas: writing the Christmas letter, putting the cards together (which I should post, too, come to think of it), buying and wrapping gifts. I'm one of those who likes to get it done and out of the way, so the other half of the ping pong table (the first half is my scrap space) is stacked with wrapped presents, just waiting.
This layout uses pictures from the middle of September. We had a warm early autumn, and the kids were outside playing together so nicely. Aaron had a thing about sticking his head out the holes of the slide, but I had to ask him to stay still for a moment so I could get a good picture. Julia stopped playing for a moment to say hi to Tucker (he is so patient and good with them, even when they were little and learning to crawl over him).
The second page is a layout from pagemaps.com. For the first page, I copied some elements to match, but it is my own idea. The patterned paper is Winter Ribbon Stripe from Doodlebug Design. The blue and gray cardstock are from my stash. The gray circles are stamped with CTMH's Background Basics set (retired) in Grey Flannel. The blue cardstock strips are stamped with CTMH's Groovy set (to retire at the end of the year, I think) in White Daisy (pigment), VersaMark and Outdoor Denim. (The five-petaled asterisk-like stamps worked well with the ones in the paper.) The title is stamped in Grey Wool using Boutique (F) and the appropriate individual Solos sets.
Okay, so I know this isn't a scrapbooking project, but it does fall under the category of "being creative." Aaron had his preschool Christmas party on Tuesday, and when I saw the sign-up sheet the week before, there was actually room under the "sweet treats" listing! (This has never happened before in one-and-a- half years of preschool parties.) I was glad because I had seen some single marshmallow-on-a- stick treats in a magazine for Halloween and had always wanted to make those, so I quickly thought up "snowman-on-a-stick" using three marshmallows. Additionally, it would allow me to use those icing tips I'd bought years ago but rarely used (as it shows--I'm still the amateur when it comes to decorating with frosting).
Anyway, I spent Sunday afternoon sticking together large marshmallows with shish-kebab skewers and making icing. The scarf is red icing piped with the basketweave tip (texture side up). The eyes and buttons are just dabs of black (really dark gray) with the #5 tip. The carrot nose is a long dab of orange with the #3 tip (you can see it best in the background of the second picture on the right), but I think I'd use the #5 if I did it again. The hats are a small marshmallow with black/gray frosting piped with the basketweave tip (flat side) around, on top and a brim. The arms are half sticks of pretzels. Then I frosted a half-sphere floral foam piece and sprinkled granulated sugar on it (for sparkle), and at school poked all the snowmen in it. All the parents were in awe and the kids couldn't wait to devour them.
One mom, from another classroom so she didn't know me, saw me carrying them in from the car. At first she was talking with another parent as I passed her, then I heard something about a "Martha Stewart wannabe" and realized she had immediately turned her conversation to me, no pause in between so I didn't realize it at first. She admired the snowmen, then turned to go back to her car and called back, "Now you'll be known to me as the marshmallow lady!" I replied, "As long as it's not because I look like a marshmallow!" (The next morning she asked for my name and introduced herself properly.)
