My daughter wanted to get gifts for the family that she works for. I suggested she make something for them. I had seen an idea for glitter ornaments on a couple of different blogs. I had all the supplies and my daughter loved the idea.

The ones that Joy made for the CricutChristmas blog really inspired us.

These are the ones my daughter made. I think they are just beautiful!

She picked up some of those boxes at Michael’s that are shaped like Chinese food containers but made of decorative paper. She wrapped each ornament individually in tissue and put it in its own box.

"The Reason for the Season"

The wise men still seek Him...

Glad Tidings! 

The King is born!

I pray your Christmas day is blessed.

Merry Christmas!

Donna

Little winter vignette

I just love my little winter vignette. I just think it is so very cute.

I got the idea after seeing a couple of different styles while blurfing. I had this old glass container that we once used as a fish bowl for our tetra.  I found these cute little deer and trees at Michael’s as accessories in with the little snow villages.

My 5 year old niece was visiting and she helped me put it all together. Isn’t it cute? I love the expression on the snowman’s face as the deer tries to nip his carrot nose right off his face. 

(sorry - the trees look crooked because of the distortion of the glass )

Idea from House of 3 Glass Apothecary Jar Idea

We have friends that host their annual "Soup Day" on Christmas Eve Eve (that's December 23rd).  It is an open house and they have many varieties of homemade soup available all day long, as well as other goodies.  It is a wonderful time of fellowship.  People come and go the entire day.

They are one of my favorite families.  They are so willing to spread their joy to others.  I wanted to make something special to bring them this year and I saw this idea on House of 3's blog. 

Mine is different, but I just loved Rhonna's idea. 

(I spread out the ribbons so you could get a better look at the attachments)

I found this fabulous glittery reindeer to add to all the goodies.

I just added some ribbon and tags and a little note card to tell them how much they are loved.

And of course I filled it with clusters of pecans and gourmet popcorn-

If you get there before me - don't spoil the suprise!

My new Christmas card display...

Remember the "clip it up" project I told you about back in October?  Well, I finally got it painted black.  I got an idea (from someone's blog) to use it for our Christmas cards this year.  I have it in the corner of our dining room.  As I look at the photos I am thinking of adding some ribbon to it and maybe something on the top - any ideas?

Also, I found this great "happy holidays" sign/ornament at a Dolle's Candyland in Ocean City, MD a few weeks ago when I was there.  It was half price and I just love it! 

I hope your holiday preparations are going well and you are enjoying this season of Advent.

Winter Retreat

 This past weekend I was at the beach for a three day retreat with a group of girlfriends from church.  The weekend was called
"a cup of Christmas tea". 

There were twelve themes -

FRIENDSHIP * FAMILY * JOY * LIGHT * SHARING * PEACE

* TRADITIONS * THANKSGIVING * GIVING *

DREAMS * HOPE * STILLNESS

My girlfriend Jan found these great little plain white tea cups and tasked me with coming up with a favor for the weekend.  I love tags and ribbons, so I decided to make a little tag book with a separate tag for each of the words.  That worked out to 12 x 13 = 156 tags, each with their own ribbon.

I used an American Crafts Christmas paper set for the back of the tags.  Their paper coordinates so well! 

This was a simple project, but I was happy with the way it turned out.

The retreat was wonderful. 

I don't know that I came back so much relaxed as renewed.

Who doesn't like free paper- right???

Take a hop over to the Urban Swank blog. They are giving away paper - 50 sheets! Wow! Talk about an early Christmas gift!

Their blog says:
"The winner will be selected randomly and will receive papers from the following collections: Lulliloo, Blink, Just Add Color, Mooch, Happy Everything, California, Oh So Merry, Everyday Lily! I'll throw in a few extra papers too and make it an even 50!"

What's not to love?

Heart box from House of 3

My daughter's room has light green walls with black and white furniture and accents. Sometime ago we purchased an Ikea Ung Drill frame. It was so pretty, but we really had no plan for it. Then I saw a great idea from the House of 3. So I ordered their Heart Kit. Last weekend my daughter put it all together. She used a rub on quote that came in the kit. She used her own choice of paper from my "collection". I think it turned out fabulous.

She used some lace to trim the edges. The chunky chandelier crystal was part of the kit.

They have lots of yummy stuff over at House of 3. If you have a minute (or more) go over and do some window shopping.

I hope you and yours have a Happy Thanksgiving!

(and a safe Black Friday)

Gypsy Giveaway!

The Gypsy Spot is giving away a Cricut Gypsy - courtesy of Custom Crops.

Great giveaway! A Cricut Gypsy!

Go to this site. Good luck!

Thanksgiving Card

I recently made this card at a get togther at a neighboring church. I used a copy of an old postcard. I found this wonderful pale yellow ribbon that looked so good with the card and postcard. The postcard image covered most of the ribbon, so I trimmed out the bottom of the postcard to expose the more of the ribbon.

I stamped that same sentiment on the inside of the card as I did on the back of the envelope.

I THANK MY GOD EVERY TIME I REMEMBER YOU Philippians 1:3

It was a fairly simple card, but I was really pleased with the way it turned out.

Are you ready for Thanksgiving?

Fiskateer Rebecca's UStream Class

This is the layout that I made in class.

So I told you about all the goodies that I got from Fiskateer Rebecca to do her UStream class. Well, I wanted to show you what I made. It is a two page layout. The left page is supposed to have three 3x3 photos aligned to the right of the page on the kraft paper. The right page is for a larger photo to align to the left of the page on the kraft paper. The result is a grouping of photos in the center of the two page lay out.

I had never done an online class. I didn't even know what UStream was, but I learned. I made the project as we went (so you will have to excuse my stamping slurs). We could watch Rebecca throughout the class and we could comment on a chat. It was really neat to hear everyone's comments and ideas as we went along.

This is what the two side columns look like.

I must say this was a very exciting experience for me. I loved working with the products. The chipboard is fun and really adds dimension to the pages. The Heidi Grace paper is two sided, giving you lots of options. And Rebecca is a great teacher with a fabulous sense of humor!

If you don't already follow their blog, you may want to start...

a little birdie told me there may be another class like this offered again...

I won an OnLine Class from Fiskateer Rebecca!

About two weeks ago I found out from Fiskateer Rebecca that I had been chosen (along with 14 other lucky women) to do an online UStream class with her. I do mean lucky, because it was a random drawing. A few days later I received a package in the mail with all the goodies that I would need to do the class (sans tools and glue). Check out all the Heidi Grace goodies!

I loved these printed chipboard add-ons. I apologize for the glare, I am still trying to figure out how to get better blog photos (suggestions appreciated). You can't really see, but there are five different sheets. There are tags, swirls, book plates, hearts and scallops. They are all self-adhesive.

Also included were flower and alpha stickers.

And last, but not least, a great stamp set! I was so excited!

My next post will show you what I made in the class.

Wouldn’t you like to be a Fiskateer?

A Fiska-what?

What is a Fiskateer you ask? In case you didn’t know, I am a Fiskateer! (see my new blinkie - I just learned how to do that - yea me!)

Well, you too can be a Fiskateer! Just go to http://www.fiskateers.com/ and follow the “How to Join” link. Get to know one of the lead Fiskateers (pick Rebecca – you will see why in a later blog). All you have to do to get to know them is click on their photo and an email will open with their address already for you to send them a quick note. Tell Rebecca that Donna VW #3810 told you about this.

Now you may think I am telling you this so I can win something. Actually I am telling you so that you can win something. Once you hear back from your Fiskateer you will follow the link they give you to join the Fiskateer community. Then the fun begins! Watch your mailbox for a really great personalized gift. My friend Summer got hers just the other day. You will not be disappointed.

Oh, yeah, if you do register, come back and let me know what your Fiskateer number is (just for fun).

Also, you can follow their blog. They always have lots of great ideas and fun events going on. Watch for my next blog to see what I got to do with Rebecca and a group of other Fiskateers.

I Made it Myself...

I have been trying to figure out my next post would be about when I read Cheryl Waters' (Founding/Lead Fiskateer #002) blog today. She wrote “Now I’m looking for a discounted ‘Clip It Up’. I’ve tried bidding on E-bay but no success yet on a deal. Any suggestions? It’s definitely something I could use.”

Well, I was like Cheryl. I wanted a ‘Clip It Up’ but didn’t want to spend all that money. I did some Google searches and found a few sites that gave me some ideas on how to make one.

Paulien van den Bosch led me to Shayla’s Creations. Both gave me great ideas. I also found a YouTube video by margaretcrafts. She has a supply list on her I Love Crafting blog. I had to do some legwork to gather all the supplies.

First I ordered the washer top lampshade wire rings from www.lampshade.com. They cost around $2 - $2.50. I think you could order all the supplies from them, but I am a visual and hands on person.

So next I visited my local hardware store. I love this store because they have people that actually offer to help you and they know their business. I bought the 36” threaded rod, hex nuts, washers, lock washers and a simple little finial from them. All those supplies were under $10.

And last, I bought a lovely lamp base from our local Lamp Factory Outlet. They had a large variety of bases to choose from. This was the most expensive part. I treated myself and picked one that I really liked. It was under twenty dollars. You could save money by reusing an old lamp, but note, not all lamps have the same parts.

It was fairly easy to put this all together. The only tools I used were two pair of pliers. I am planning on spraying the metal parts black (only because that is my preference). Oh – what about the clips? I found clips by Darice on the JoAnn’s website. I got them on sale for $2.39 for 21 clips. They are perfect. That sure beats 25 for $7.
7Gypsies has a version of this that they use for a Photo Display, so don’t limit yourself!

I have an old floor lamp that I was going to give away, but I decided to keep it and try to make a floor version. I am partway through that process and will post another blog when that one is done.

Have a lovely day!

Finally another post! Pumpkin Dip and a really cute jar...

Back in September I read a great blog on JustRite’s site by their guest blogger, Barb Schram. It is titled Pumpkin Dip. I was really excited because I had just ordered the Autumn Blessings Set from JustRite, so I couldn’t wait to try it.




I thought this would be a great project to demonstrate at our church’s Harvest Fest. I knew that I had a scheduling conflict and would not be able to be at the event, but I found a group of girlfriends that were willing to do the demo and class. We decided to get together and make the recipe and some samples of the jars for their class.


Well, first off, the dip is fabulous! It is very easy to make. We tasted it with ginger snaps and apples. The ginger snaps are pretty good with it, but the apples (I used Fuji) were fabulous! It was a taste of fall delight! The next day I brought some to the office to share and we tried it with Nilla Wafers – another good choice.


Then, the jars – they are just so cute. I had a hard time finding them locally (I guess it is a little late for canning season) so I ordered them online from Goodman’s. Ours project is a little different from Barbs. For the top we used the middle two sizes of the Spellbinders Petite Scalloped Small Circles set. We put a patterned circle behind the off white circle that we stamped with the pumpkin. After trying markers and colored pencils we decided the pencils were a better choice for the class. Then we used a stamp from the JustRite Recipe Set border that reads “Made with Love” and we used their small letter set to add “PUMPKIN DIP” in the center. We stamped that on a little pumpkin. Both the pumpkin and the tag were punched from Sizzix originals.

The plan for Harvest Fest is to demonstrate how to make the dip and to have some samples to taste and a recipe handout. There will also be a class on making the lid topper and the tag. That way you can make them and take the take them home and put one together for a special friend. I am sending mine to my mother-in-law with a batch of the dip.

I have to add that I was shamed into doing this post. When my sister found out that I had a blog she wanted to know the site. She is a very dedicated blogger and has a great site. I was embarrassed to tell her because I have only had one post and that was a month ago. I promised that I would do a post about this great little project, and as I am typing this I see that she just sent me an email asking where the post is.

Thanks for visiting!
Donna
PS What have you thanked God for today?