Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have so much to share with all of you after the holiday season about the true spirit of giving. My family and I have been on the receiving end of it this year and I am just blown away by the kindness and love that our community has bestowed upon us.

While I know things are insane and lots of us spend the last few days racing to do last minute details, I would like to ask you to please take time to wish someone a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah...it personalizes it & means so much more to hear those words rather than Happy Holidays. Please let someone out in traffic or open a door and hold it for someone. The slightest small gesture can mean the world to one person and change their entire day!

I have been truly blessed this Christmas season and I hope you all are too.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa!!!!!


All my love,
Michelle

Blessed.....

I feel truly blessed tonight and humbled beyond words. I have been the recipient of some of the most amazing random acts of kindness & love between yesterday & today. Today proved to my children that just because a big fat man in a red suit doesn't come down our chimney (or in our front door)doesn't mean there really isn't a Santa Claus. Santa Clause in my eyes means "Christmas Magic" I truly believe it's the time of year when miracles happen. When each child came to me at one point or another and asked me if I believed in Santa my answer was just that..."I believe in Christmas Magic, Santa is part of that. You must always believe in Christmas Magic because miracles can and will happen".

Today showed them that by believing in Christmas Magic that wonderful things can and will happen. My motto to them has and always be "if you don't believe...you don't receive". They witnessed that today due to the kindess and caring of total strangers and friends. Today sheer joy, bewilderment and the true sign of belief & relief showed on all their beautiful faces. It made both them and I realize how very lucky we are to have such AMAZING people in our lives.

Today helped reinforce the morals that I try daily to instill in our children... by being a good person, even when the chips are down and you feel so broken, you still must show the world that you are there for the long haul and treat every person the way you want to be treated. I tell them that if you do good then good things will eventually come to you. It's been a hard lesson to prove to them lately. It's been a struggle to get through many days lately. It's been so hard to show them that life is going to get better, that it won't always be this way. That we are in a very rough place right now but we have no where to go but up. I try to make sure they understand that they can't let this rough patch define who they are. That we must be the kind, caring people we have always been. That if we are good...good things WILL come. Many people in my life, some who showed themselves and others that did not, helped me teach my children that invaluable lesson today. It showed us all that there are kind, loving, caring people out there and that we should NEVER take that for granted.

I feel truly blessed today. I had not one ounce of Christmas spirit until yesterday when an amazing act of kindness started a ripple effect in my life that has left me with tears of joy all day. I don't remember the last time I cried so many happy tears.

Blessed. That is what we are.

Thank you to anyone and everyone who had a hand in giving my family hope and a sense of peace this holiday season. I can't ever thank you enough for the joy and peace you have brought to this woman's heart. Bless you.

May all of you have the merriest Christmas this season has to offer!

God Bless!!!

xxxooo

Michelle

Christmas Card Making Party!!!

Hi all! Today was my daughter's Christmas Card Making Party with her friends. There were 5 ten yr old girls all together and we had great fun. We laughed and joked and they got silly but the best part....we stamped and created until we were exhausted. I had 5 projects planned but we only got to 4 of them. They were really happy with them and that's what matters most. I kitted everything last night and this morning so that it was simple and easy. Most pieces were cut on the Silhouette and only one card needed scissors and I will eliminate that next time as they wanted me to cut everything out. So without further ado, here are the projects that I managed to get pictures of before they all left.


This was the one that required all the cutting. The Sizzix version was sold out when I went to get it last time....you can bet that I will have it next time. This is the card I did all the scissor cutting on. Tree trees and 1 reindeer times 5 girls equals sore hands for me tonight! lol

I had the reindeer and trees stamped on white, they just had to color them in and then place their punched snowflakes on the card, tear some paper for snow and then stamp the reindeer, trees and sentiment. They pop dotted the trees and the colored reindeer. Super easy. Super fun.

I got the idea for this card from Lisa Spangler over on the Hero Arts website. You can see the inspiration card HERE.

Next up is another card that I got from the Hero Arts web site. The inspiration is just flowing over there and there is such a broad range of techniques from super simple to more adventurous. Here is the card the girls did:



I changed it up a bit from the original I prestamped the ornament on watercolor paper and heat embossed it. I then had the girls ink the ornament and spritz them HEAVILY with Perfect Pearls. They all used different colors and all of them came out GORGEOUS. They stamped the background of snowflakes, I had already done the tree bough for them. They attached everything to the card and stamped the sentiment. It was just the right amount of stamping for the 4 girls who had never stamped before.

This next project is a bookmark. I got it from my Silhouette software. It's available in the Silhouette Store. I loved this when I saw it and I knew the girls would love it too.



It was really simple. They just had to glue him together. Again, I cut it all for them and bagged it they just had to pull it out and attach it. Good thing too because I was still cutting out reindeer's and trees through this project! lol

And lastly, you can't have a Christmas party with out a visit from Ole St. Nick can you? No, I didn't think so either. He made his way down the chimney....and then back up! ;)



This wonderful guy is a puppet of sorts. He is on a popsicle stick that pokes through a slit in the bottom of the chimney and you can make him go up and down the chimney. He was the hit of the party!!! I pre-cut everything for this and bagged them for the girls. I also ran all the little pieces through my Xyron X and put the strips in the bag (oh I colored the faced for them too). All they had to do was paper piece him and the chimney. It was super fast and super easy.

While I had 5 projects planned and 3 hours time. We never made the 5th project. I will make it and show you another time. It's really fun and easy too. We ended up having a little over 2 hours by the time they got here, got settled, had their snack etc. It was a 1/2 day here so they all walked home from school with Faith.

I am doing it again on Sunday with my 12 yr. old's friends. I am going to change the projects up a bit though.

I am too tired to link product tonight. They wiped me out.If you have any questions on any of the product just leave a comment and I will be sure to get back to you.

I'm off to bed.......

Nite all!
Michelle

Happy Holidays Rudolf

Hi all! I'm back today with one of my favorite card sets that I made. I absolutely love non-tradional colors for Christmas. When my children have all moved out I will have a pink, white and pool tree. I might even have more than one! ;)



This card is a really simple card to create. I started by stamping the snowflakes in Versamark and embossing them with the Hero Arts white embossing powder. I then used the Spun Sugar Distress ink to color the background. I didn't even use a foam applicator. I just put the ink pad directly onto the card and smeared it in. I loved the look of it, it's not completely smooth, like a snowstorm and it was so much faster. Especially when doing 10 cards.



I then did the trees. I saw a video on the Hero Arts blog by the ever talented Julie Ebersole. You can see the video here: Hero Arts Video I just had to try it. It was soooo fun. I love the look of them. I covered them in Star Dust Stickles afterwards. It's my favorite. I always have a few bottles on hand I use it so much.



I stamped my reindeer onto paper and colored him I didn't bother cutting out the antlers...too much work. It's so much easier to stamp him on the card and then pop dot the colored one. A little bling for the antlers and one red one for the nose. I tore and layered paper for the snow, added some more stickles, placed the reindeer, stamped the title and it was done. It was super easy. It went really fast for 10 cards too. Just do each step 10 times then move onto the next. It's so much easier than trying to complete a full card and then move on to the next.


Off to sketch 5 cards. I am having a Christmas Card making party for Faith and her friends on Wednesday. I'm surprising each of them with an ornament too. Should be a great time! :)

Cheers!
Michelle

InLinkz.com

Peace on Earth...

I have many cards to share this week. As I posted earlier I did a Craft Fair this past weekend. I made so much stuff and I want to share it all with you this week. It also really worked out well, timing wise, with the challenge on the Hero Arts Blog. The challenge this month is "Card Sets". I didn't even realize what the challenge was until 2 or 3 days ago. I was psyched. So without further chatter here is the first 2 sets.

They are the same card, just different ribbons and paper strips. I started by coloring in the Winter Scene stamp with markers. They are just regular markers that I bought my son at Michael's. They have amazing colors and they work so well with this technique. After I colored each tree the color I wanted it I colored the deer and the tree and then lightly misted it with Inference Green perfect pearls and stamped it. It comes out AMAZING! It's so easy to do that my daughter and her friend were doing this technique all weekend long while making snowflake Christmas cards. After that I just added the ribbon, punches the paper with my Martha Steward doily punch and added some Hero Arts extra small pearls. I stamped the title with an Ali Edward's stamp by Technique Tuesday and I stamped a saying from the Holiday Sayings stamp set (see below) on the inside of the cards. They were so simple to make. I banged out 20 of them in no time.






A close-up of the inference green on the markers...so pretty in real life!


I stamped the envelopes too. =)

Have you made cards this holiday season? I'd love to see them. Link me up. I have missed so much on the www in my absence. I'll be back tomorrow with another card set. Until then.....

Cheers!
Michelle

busy, busy, busy

My poor neglected blog. I have been crazy busy. I have a HUGE craft fair coming Friday. I had asked my mother 2.5 months ago to ask her boss for the sheet to sign up. She asked her 2 weeks ago. We got in and I am slammed. I hadn't bothered to make anything figuring it was too late but it's not so I plug on. I will be back with lots of pictures soon. I promise! I hope you are all getting everything done that you need to for the holidays!

happy crafting.
michelle