We had a wonderful Christmas.  Jen, Matt, Mark and Sydney were here and their Aussidoodle, Sadie, was here to meet Charlie and entertain him!  This year Sydney has her driver's license, so she was able to go and do her own Christmas shopping.  She purchased Christmas outfits for Sadie and Charlie and they wore them all evening!  Charlie was a Christmas tree with a star on top of his head.  Sadie was a girl wearing red plaid to match Sydney!

I am also posting another box card I made using MFT Stamps' Card Box and Low-Profile add-on.  The little critters are also from My Favorite Things:  Sweet Holiday Penguins and Frost-Loving Friends stamp sets.  Today my plan is to clean up my scrap room and the other parts of the basement that are loaded with gift wrap, ribbon and more!   Ever since Blogger changed, I cannot seem to get the pictures in the places I want them.  So the pics take up more space than is necessary. Have a great day!

Christmas Week

Usually at this time of the year, Christmas is all around us.  This year, we are only going to the stores we have to go to and no little Christmas get-togethers with our friends.  It is kind of sad.  But tonight, our neighborhood had a Christmas parade in the neighborhood.  It was very cute.  Motorcyclists led the parade and Santa was driving one!  Then came fire trucks and golf carts decked out for the parade.  There were a couple of floats and on one of them, neighbors were the carolers.  It was an extremely cute way to celebrate Christmas.

Today's post includes three cards that were created using retired Stampin' Up plaid paper, Carta Bella Tartan #2 and Echo Park's Gingerbread Christmas papers.  Scrapbook.com has a large selection of pattern paper and you can purchase one sheet or ten.  If you are ever looking for a particular theme or color of pattern paper, try Scrapbook.com.    I used both gold and white embossing powders.  A couple had brads and others did not.  

On another note, tonight one or two hours after sunset, you should be able to see the "Christmas" star in the western sky.  It has not happened in many years and is actually Jupiter and Saturn so close together that it looks like a star.  I even set my alarm so I remember to look for it tonight.  Have a great day.

Merry

Today's cards are bright and cheerful.  The "MERRY" was cut using My Favorite Things' Stacked Merry Die-namics.  The bird is from Penny Black's Winter Wonderland stamp set.  I used different stamps for the word "Christmas".  As cute as the "christmas" font is on the Pool Party card, not having an Upper case "C" bothered me.  So then I found another "Christmas" stamp and started using that one as it had the Upper case "C".  Tonight my Christmas cookie decorator is coming over for our annual baking weekend.  Looking forward to having Sydney here to keep our baking tradition going.  I am so happy that at 16 years old, she still looks forward to our annual "toast the bread for stuffing" and "bake the Christmas cookies".  She is such a loving young lady.  Have a great weekend!

My Christmas Cards

I made a variety of Christmas cards this year.  Today I am posting the cards I made especially for my group of family/friends who are into beaches and Jimmy Buffett.  The images  used for these cards are from     Newton's Nook Designs' Sun Soaked Christmas stamp set.  I especially like the sand lady rather than a snowman. For the card bases, I used Stampin' Up's Magenta Madness, Real Red and Coastal Cabana.  The cards are quite simple, but the colors and images are the little bits of brightness we all need this year!  Have a great day!  

Between Christmas cards and puppy watching, I almost forgot to make a card for my favorite son-in-law!   As you can see, it was rather simple.  Even though he recently had hip surgery, he was up for a celebration.  And it was a very different celebration.  We all met in a parking lot near Higgins and Sutton Road.  When we all arrived, Jen passed out the celebration treats:  little mini hot lava cakes for each of us, a party favor of  German cookies, plastic silverware and birthday napkins in a foil pan!  It was a birthday party to go for each car!  Jen's friends, Kristin and Mike, decorate their house for Christmas and not just decorate the house!  They put up the lights and the lights are coordinated with music.  You pull up to their house, turn to a radio channel and listen to the music as the lights on the house and trees dance to the music!  They do this themselves.  They don't have a company that does it.  So, after the parking lot meet-up,  we then had a four-car parade to Mike and Kristin's house to watch the light show.  It was a fun way to celebrate on a cool, winter, pandemic night!  Have a great day!

Box Cards

 Today I am posting a picture of two box cards I made.  For both cards, I used My Favorite Things c

Card Box and Low-Profile Add-on.  If I wanted, I could have also purchased the now Drift Add-on, but I decided I could make my own snow hills.  And, I did.  But, I should have just spent the extra money and purchased the snow add-on!  The images in the box card to the left are mostly from MFT's Toasty Greetings stamp set.  The box card on the right includes images from MFT's Sweet Holiday Penguins.  The tree is from MFT's Happy Pawlidays stamp set.  The messages are on the back side of the box.  Now that I have made a few of these low profile box cards, the next will go quicker.  Have a great weekend!

Charlie

 

John and I have been looking to adopt a small dog for a good 6 weeks.  Many of you know that we are all for rescuing dogs.  If you want a big dog, there are many available.  And many of them are puppies, too.  And so many are beautiful.  Matt has four rescues and they are the best dogs.  But, I wanted something I could handle for the rest of his and our lives.  I have filled out many applications and put in my bid for almost a dozen dogs at various rescues.  One in particular, North Central Maltese rescue had a handsome little guy named Pete.  He was a poodle mix and about two years old.  I started filling out the application and in red it stated that if you are over 62 years of age, you can only adopt dogs that are six years or older.  Another asked in their application where the dog would sleep?  I answered in his crate in the laundry room.  There were two dogs there that I was interested in.  Unfortunately, my answer was wrong.  She thanked me for applying.  And for my information, a dog should never be separated from his or her human at night.  If any other dogs became available, they would contact me. Matt took me to the Winnebago County shelter to look at a dog, but I could only look.  Luckily, his family came and claimed him.  The others I was looking at were all adopted or spoken for before me.

So, John and I decided to buy a dog from a breeder.  And so yesterday, we brought Charlie home.  We are happy to have a dog in our house again.  He is a Shih-Tzu, 9 1/2 weeks old and as cute as a button!   And he slept thru the night in his kennel and it was  dry when John woke up this morning!  I wanted a little dog that would keep me moving!  He does that, too.  He is in need of a grooming, but we will wait until after his vet appointment this week.  Have a great day!

Loads of Joy

I took a break from making cards for the grown-ups and made a few cards for some of the awesome boys in my life.  I used the Loads of Joy stamp
set from My Favorite Things.  The pattern paper is from the Snow Day Remix collection from Lawn Fawn.  The images were stamped with black Versafine ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder.  I used Copic markers to color the images.  A few sequins were added to  the white space.  Have a great day!