Our Christmas Celebrations 2012

     Welcome to Festive Friday @ Erica's Cricut Craft Room. I hope you had as much fun as we did at Christmas this year. We were asked by Erica to post pictures of Christmas morning and for once it did not include any crafting. I ask you, who had time to craft really, lol. We are so blessed that my daughter and her husband were able to fly in from California and our son and his wife were able to bring our 2 grand children from Florida home for Christmas as well. I am so lucky to have all our children and grand children around to help us celebrate this year. The following are some pictures to give you a peek into our ongoing festivities starting with Christmas Eve and culminating with our tradition of brunch December 26 (this is the day we actually open gifts, the other days are for food, family and pure love!) Ready? Set, here we go....

 

     We always make reindeer food and set out to sprinkle in the yard. Notice there is no snow, yet! If you don't know what reindeer food is the recipe is quite simple: oatmeal, sugar and lots of glitter. The glitter sparkles in the moonlight and helps the reindeer find your house.

     Once the children come in, I don't know how, but, our door bell always rings and we find bags that the Elves leave for each of the children. In the bags there are new PJ's and a book.

     The adults love to watch the children but also enjoy the Yankee Swap for adults only. At least some of us enjoy it, lol.

     Only 2 out of the 8 grand children were at our house Christmas morning and guess what? We had a touch of snow. So exciting for these Floridians. They opened some gifts from Santa.

Alexis was so excited to get her McKenna American girl doll and Nicholas got a lot of Legos.

     We spent the afternoon with the rest of our family at my daughter Amy's house where we always have plenty of food and laughter. The cousins really love hanging out together. Oh my what wonderful food including a coffee bar for the adults and a hot chocolate bar for the kids. Here's a peek:

     We always have the most wonderful decor for the tables as well.

     I will leave you with our craziness the day after Christmas with our brunch and gift opening. Everyone helps with the cooking as you will see:

     From our house to yours Merry Christmas!!!!!

     Be sure to head back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see how the rest of my DT Sisters have celebrated.

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Jingle Bells Card

     Breath in, Breathe out. It's true, there are only 7 more crafting days left 'til Christmas.Here @ My Cricut Craft Room we are still showing you our holiday projects to help inspire you along. Today erica asked that we make a card with Jingle bells. Have you sent out cards or, like me are you still making them,lol. Anyways I thought I'd share my card that I plan to use for Thank You cards as well as a Birthday card. Yup, we are only half way through our Birthday celebrations for December! Ready to see my card?

     This is so sparkly in person! Let's get right to the details. First I used Tis The Season with the image from page 67. I cut it at 3 1/4" , and all the layers. I used a silver matte cardstock for the shadow layer and a beautiful pink glitter card stock for the top layer.

     I love to add embossing to my cards so this Cuttlebug ornament folder seemed so perfect. It is a maroon colored card stock that I also misted with some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. I then layered this on a piece of left over Polka Dot card stock. I also added some silver ribbon to the top of the bell. Of course I needed some extra shine so I used some silver Candi Brads to add to the corners.

     Would you just look at the Glimmer Mist on the background? It's so pretty in person. Lastly I adhered my jingle bell with some pop dots for some dimension. Notice there is no sentiment, yet. That's because if I need a quick Thank You card I have one ready to go!!!
     I hope you are all getting your projects done. I am in super over drive since my Daughter and Son-In Law arrive Wednesday from California and Saturday my Son, Daughter In Law and  two of the grand children arrive from Florida. Let the festivities begin!!!
     Please be sure to stop back over to My Cricut Craft Room and leave some love there as well.

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A Perky Little Penguin Card

     Welcome to another Post for My Cricut Craft Room. This week Erica asked the Design Team to use a "perky penguin" on our cards. If you have been following my blog, then you know that Decemeber is a HUGE birthday month for us. Last week my grandson Nicholas in Florida turned 6. This week my grandson Benjamin also turns 6. Yup, we are a very close family, lol. Would you like to see the card I made for Ben?

     Since Ben can be a character, I thought he would love this penguin. I used the penguin from Winter frolic. The image is on page 57 and I cut all the layers @ 3 1/4". The beak is still rather small so I used a Quickie glue pen which is perfect for small areas. I also used a white gel pen for the eyes.

     I cut the layer for the hat and pop twice, once in red and once in yellow. The top of the hat has some Fun Flock to add some dimension (and because I couldn't find any small pom poms in my stash!). The background pattern is from DCWV Winter card stack with glitter.

     In order to make sure I had a perky penguin, I placed him on an action wobble. The trees are left over from some tags I had made and thought they went perfect with this project. I even added a few to the inside of the card. The foremost tree is raised with some pop dots.

     The "silly sixes" sentiment is from Pink By Designs "age is only a #.

     Well that's it for today. I hope you are all enjoying the upcoming festivities. Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends. Now please be sure to head back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what my design team sisters have to share with you. 

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Decorating For Christmas

     How are your projects coming? Anyone finish their shopping yet? What about wrapping all those gifts? Have you done any baking yet? I know, I know it can be overwhelming. For some reason though, I just can't get in the mood until I do some decorating. That is what seems to put me in the spirit of the season.
     I thought I would show you some of my decorations of what I have done so far. (It is always a work in progress, lol). All of these were without anything Cricut, however, I always keep coming up with ideas so this will probably be updated.
     Today I finished decorating the tree. I love to add ribbon and especially bows. This year I decided to do a spiral wrap with the new ribbon I got at Michael's.Here's our tree:

     I used 2 different sizes of sheer ribbon, the larger ribbon for the 2 bows for the tree top and 30 yards of a small size to "wrap" the tree. I also got a co coordinating solid ribbon with the same beautiful gold flourish to make my bows with.

     We have a rather odd collection of ornaments but collectively they work! I have a set of the nutcracker blown ornaments my mom gave us when my daughters were dancing in the production. The beautiful Christmas tree frame was a place setting that my daughter Amy used one Christmas Day for Dinner. We each had one so it was quite fancy. I don't know where she gets her party ideas from, lol. I still have some of the red ornaments with the snowflakes left from when my kids were small. Sadly some have gone by the wayside.

   I can't believe we still have all 3 of these Santas left! They have a paper mache face and real wool hair and beard.

     I have some tapestry balls that are from the Smithsonian Museum Store. Will you just look at the Santa with sunglasses! We have several clay ornaments from the grand children in Florida. Of course I have some snowbabies ornaments. In case you missed it, I have a post on one part of my snowbaby display HERE. Speaking of the Smithsonian Museum Store, my husband and I have been collecting some carousel animals for several years. He really loved these and I thought they were pretty different. While we usually incorporate them on our main tree, this year I decided to give them a tree of their own:

 

     The following pictures will give you a better idea of these unique ornaments.

     I thought this was a fun ribbon to use with these decorations. This is a really fun part horse, part mermaid. The gold color details are beautiful in person.

      We have a  horse and a camel.

     We even have a zebra, tiger giraffe and an elephant.

     I still have more to do: set up the village, decorate the mantel and oh yah, do some shopping now that I am in the spirit full swing. Let's not forget all those Italian cookies I have to bake!!!

     I'll be back with future posts on my ideas. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Chanukah to all my Jewish friends out there.

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Remembering Pearl Harbor

Good Morning my fellow crafters. Today is a different type of post, for me anyway. First, I am so happy to wish a happy 6th birthday to my grandson Nicholas in Florida. When he was born I told my son Mike and his wife Muirgheal that this was one birthday I would never forget. When they asked me why I reminded them that this was the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. Maybe not the best association but it only proves that life does go on. I had gone to Hawaii last March to help my daughter while she had surgery and the only thing I wanted to do was to go to Pearl Harbor before her surgery. Unfortunately the whole 2 weeks I was there it pored. We are talking torrential rains and even some "ice balls". Actually it was hail but, since they only have hail once very 100 years, they didn't know what it call these chunks of ice,lol!!! Due to all the rains, the site of the Arizona was obstructed by this reddish mud. However it did not diminish the fact that you were standing over the final resting place of these sailors. I will leave you with some pictures that I was able to take. Perhaps I will get these scrapped during the winter when the snow is flying.

The Arizona Memorial

Our solemn ride to the Memorial

The Entrance

Visible smoke stacks

oil still leaks today after 70 years

Those who lost their lives

Shows the memorial over the Arizona

Flowers from the people of Japan

Beautiful Leis

 

     Just as we will never forget September 11, 2001 and we should never forget December 7th. May these souls forever rest in peace

Update On Snowflakes

     Hello fellow crafters! Today Erica has asked the Design Team to use the theme Cold Hands Warm Heart so I decided to jump in here an give you an update on my Snowflakes project that I did a few weeks back.                   Do you remember these?

                                                               Well, how about these?

                                                  What about that empty terrarium? 

     Well I thought this might fit with the theme today since I have the snowflakes to make your hands cold but, my collection of Snowbabies from Dept. 56 just might warm your heart!

     I love how my snowflakes just added to the fun these figures are having. Since the snowflakes all hang at different levels, it really does give the illusion of snow falling!!!!

This is the night time view. So peaceful don't you think?

     Since we have little fingers that love to get into Mema's things, I started to display my ornaments where the grand children could be really appreciate my collection. They love to pull up a chair and just look at all the different snow babies and what they are doing. I run a strip of  blue and gold lights in the bottom of the case and then cover the wires with fluff. I finish it off by sprinkling some "snow" on top. When things get crazy around the Holidays I am  amazed to see how each person takes a moment to just gaze at these little 

guys.

     All the snowflakes were cut using the Cricut cartridge "When It's Cold Outside!" to make some 3D snowflakes. I cut them @ 1 1/4" and 1 1/2". I love how this came out and the snowflakes added the perfect touch.

     I hope you have enjoyed my update. Now be sure to head back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what the rest of the team has to share with you.

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