Believers Inkers

To You from Me

This is one of the treats I'm giving to the ladies in my Tech Club.  Hope they like it.  It's simple to make with the "love You Much" stamp set from Stampin' Up! and the retired hostess set, "Best Yet".

Spreading the Love

My friend Phyllis stopped by yesterday and shared some of her GORGEOUS Valentine cards that she made and is making for her upcoming workshops.  Check this out.

She is so very creative.  Now couldn't you just take this beautiful card and turn it into a scrapbook page or two with pictures from the Christmas? 

Just "THINK" as my little Carmen would say, and you could use it for a Valentine party or any other special occasion.

On the second day on my Christmas vacation …

I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas.  Just a few more days and a few more Christmas parties.  As a special treat, we’re going to see our

Ohio

Pastor Mark and Anna and spend a couple nights with them.  We’ll also be able to catch up with some old friends and make some new friends.

Of course there will be wrapping paper and bows and tape and all that stuff to take lots of pictures of and journal the memories.  What a great time to make new memories and remember old traditions.

What a fabulous time to remind those around you of the miracle of Christmas.  Maybe someone close to you celebrates Christmas but doesn’t understand the gift of salvation.  It’s the one gift that can not be purchased, but is given freely by God, the Father.  You see, God the Father, sent His Son, Jesus, Who is also God, to bear all the ugliness of sin and pay the price which is death.  Jesus died the most horrible death imaginable to pay the price for forgiveness of all our sins.  This is the free gift that is available to us just by asking for it.  How simple is that?  Thank you Jesus.

It's Almost Christmas

We just couldn't wait 'til Christmas to open presents.  When you travel 15 hours through rain and dropping temps and then see such a beautiful little child run to your arms and say "Hello, Grandma", your heart melts and suddenly it's Christmas.

  Look Grandma!

 

Then we get to set puzzels.  Carmen's famous words -- You HAVE to THINK!.  Could we solve so many of the world crisis with that novel idea from a 4 year old.  Another journal memory moment.

Merry Christmas!

On the first day of my Christmas vacation …

It was a nice warm balmy,

Florida

winter night in December.  The temps got down to the low 70s.  I was in the second day of my flu bug, but not to let that keep me from getting on the road with my sweetie.  We’re off to see the grandbaby.  This is the stuff that you write about for your scrapbook.

 

 Every little chore was turned into a mountain of a task.  I drove all the way to

Plant City

only to have my camera again fail me.  On the return trip, I stopped at Wally’s to get a new battery and of course they had every kind except the LP-40.  So after I passed by the world’s best Fruit Stand, Parksdale Fruit in Plant City, I did a U-turn (which is legal in Florida)  and picked up some more of home to share with our northern relatives.  You can’t buy these oranges and tangerines in the stores.  These fruits are so sweet.

 

We spent the night in northern

Georgia

and still slept

 with the air conditioner on.  Just a habit.  It’s hard to believe that we left beautiful, sunny

Florida

– did I mention that it’s warm and in the lower 80s – for cold grey skies of the north.  Well that’s what family is all about.  Since the kids can’t get the time off to come see us, we’re taking the time to brave the weather and go see them.

Rudolph Gift Bag

Rudolph is so adorable this time of year-- especially when he can be filled with all kinds of treats.  We made this little gift bag or treat bag last month, but have had so much fun during the last few days giving him away, that I just had to make more of him.

 

This little gift bag is easily made from leftover scrapbook cardstock.  (You can find a great place to organize your scrapbook paper & pieces here.)  Don’t forget to put a finished sample and copy of the direction  in your technique album. 

 

Start with an ordinary lunch sack that’s 5” wide.  Measuring from the bottom, cut it down to 5 ¼” high.  This is the basis for your bag.  Save the top that you cut off, you can make raffia with it.  Put it aside.  Here are the cardstock pieces:

(All cardstock is Stampin' Up!)

 

%   1 piece of 5” x 11” Kraft colored cardstock

%   1 piece of 5” x 1” Real Red cardstock

%   1 piece of 2” x 4 ¼” Real Red cardstock

%   1 piece of 5” x 1” Whisper White cardstock

%   1 piece of 2 ½ x 1 ¼” Whisper White cardstock

%   1 piece of 1 ½ x ¾ “ Basic Black cardstock

You’ll also need:

%   Glitter (optional)

%   Moveable eyes or frosty chips or something like that (optional)

 

First, save all the scraps.  We use them to make the eyes, nose & eyelids.

 

1.  Score the 5 x 11 Kraft cardstock at 5 ½ inches.  Then make a mark 2 inches down from the score on the edges.  Turn your cardstock the long way and mark at 2 ½ inches on the edge.  This is not to scale.  

Fold on the center score line. The dotted line and cut off the 2 corner pieces but don’t throw away.  You’ll punch out a 1 inch circle and cut it half for the eye lids.

 

2.  Adhere the bag to the cardstock with bottom of the bag flush to the edge of the end of the cardstock.  You’ll need to put adhesive on all four edges of the bags.

 

%   Take the short (2 x 4 ¼”) red piece of cardstock and cut it on the diagonal.  This makes the pointed cap with enough leftovers for the nose.  Just cut out with a 1” punch.

 

4.  Use the ½” circle punch to punch out the black eyeballs and white tip of the cap.

 

5.  Decorate with fake eyeballs and glitter or however you choose.  This is a lot easier than described. 

 

Use that leftover paper bag top and cut it into tiny ¼ to 1/8” slices on your paper cutter.  Grab and small handful of the strips and rollup into a ball.  Gently unroll and you have some matching homemade raffia.

 

The bags are big enough to give home-baked treats, like cookies and brownies and fudge.  They’re also masculine enough that you can wrap up the dreaded Christmas tie and throw in a few of chocolate kisses.  The backside is large enough to say who it’s to and from.  It’s also a sweet little gift that young ones will also like to make. 

 

If you have any questions, please post and I’ll get them answered.   Sometimes I might accidently leave out a step.  Merry CHRISTmas!

 

The Weather Outside is Frightful . . .

 So this is beautiful sunny Florida and we don’t get inches of snow and bone chilling cold, but we do get rain.  Since today is one of those days, it’s great to be inside and to do some journaling and  making some Christmas  albums and gifts.

For starters, what do you do with all those used or scratched CDs or DVDs that you bought by the case load?  When Sam’s first offered the CDs in the 100 pack tower, I bought them thinking what a good deal I found.  I thought I would use them to back up my personal files and stuff or maybe save some pictures on them.   It was a good deal but 2 years later I still have about 65 of those shiny unused discs remaining in the tower.  It seems that I’m the only one that’s always on the tail end of technology.

  

Now days, instead of saving my pictures or short files on the CD, all I have to do is just save them to a tiny little flash drive.  This device is small enough that it can safely be tucked into my jeans pants pocket and conveniently be tossed in the laundry without notice.

  

However, I don’t recommend washing your thumb drives.  Most generally, the data isn’t saved and the jeans don’t remember a thing.  Remember what Mom said about checking your pockets.  You’ll never accidentally put a CD in your pocket and toss that into the wash.

With just a little imagination, the shiny discs do have a useful after-life.  They can easily be converted into Christmas ornaments.  Just cut out 2 pieces of cardstock slightly smaller than your CD.  Stamp your favorite image on each piece.  Adhere the finished image to each side of the CD.  Punch a hole in the top with a crop-a-dile (great scrapbooking tool) and tie a ribbon through it.  Now you have a cute ornament.  Let the kids make some for the Grandparents and you have another journaling idea for the holiday scrapbook.

Thankful Thoughts

We all have a lot to be thankful about and one of things I'm thakful for is a great group of sisters in our Stampin' Up! Group.  We had a wonderful meeting last week where we all got together and made fun projects, shared ideas and swaped card fronts with each other.  Most of all, the fellowship was the best.  This swap from Denise just reminded me to be more thankful.  Thanks, Denise!

 

Happy Stampers

There's no such thing as too much fun.  We stamp, have fun, share friendships, and eat chocolate.  And we get to make cards and learn new techniques, plus the latest news from Stampin' Up!  Here's the first table of Happy Stampers, left to right:  Tamara, Lindsay, Leann and Amanda.

                                                                                 

My apologies to Bobbie and Carol Jo for not snapping your pictures. I got to yapping and then you left.  I'll get you next month with Jennifer and Shac.  I love you guys!

Faux Shaving Cream

Here's the 6" x 6" sample card to put in your technique album for the Faux Shaving Cream.  We used the Fabulous Flowers Stamp Set and the Watercolor Vine jumbo roller wheel.  I find that this technique works best with a lighter base color and then a darker color on your roller wheel.  Also, bolder images worker better on the roller wheel instead of fine line images.  Experiment for yourself and find out how much fun you can have.  This is better than tie-dye!