Mike's Glittery Red Box

My friend Connie and I spent a long Saturday recently in a flurry of creation. She loved the box I made for her, so I taught her how to make them, too. The most challenging one was the one for her brother, Mike. We were stumped. Mike is an unusual guy, so we had to make him an unsusal box. He has rooms n his house with a color theme and each room has Christmas lights up year round. Mike's favorite color is read. We tinted the box red, but then we were stuck. Finally I got an inspiration. I made raised, glittered letters. I found that using glue dots with something that has glitter on it is problematic. Next time I will most likely use double sided foam tape. That much red on red didn't work, so we put a strip of fun, striped paper. I used rub-ons and an occasional permenant marker to fill in letters I had runout of. I put "Peace," "Blessings," "Hope," "Joy," "Create," and "Inspire." Then I put on tacky glue and glitter. I learned that thin glue does nto stick to the metal and that tacky glue does not seem to dry clear, at least not so far. Connie will fill it with more Christmas lights, a nice watch with a red face and a few other interesting items.

December Gift Swaps

Natalie and I have a fun gift swap going. They usually have to do with the holiday or the season. We got an unusual December visit from Natalie and her family. This allowed us to give each other our gifts in person, which was a lot of fun. The gift I received from Natalie is on the left. The picture does not do it justice. She gave me a wonderful Jillery plate. This is a fun serving dish that is clear and has great accent details with coiled wire and beads. It is hard to see here. She also gave me yummy Enstrom's toffee, Celestial Seasonings Holiday tea and snow sprinkles for our holiday villiage. Natalie also gave me a great apron. We have enjoyed looking at the "Tie One On" sites, and this is a small nod to that. This lovely apron is well made of sturdy material. It is a welcome addition to my kitchen.

My gift to her is on the right. I found a bunch of fun stamps - sayings and images. I also included a lovely kitchen towel (I have a thing for kitchen towels), a variety of Christmas sprinkles, some fancy "N" stickers, recipes from Penzy's, one of my snowflakes, a small scrapbook that is accordion style and a peppermint candy tree.

It was a wonderful, albeit short visit. We ate, we played, and we talked.

Not So Secret Santa

I organize the Secret Santa activity at my school. This year I am sending to a good, artistic friend of mine. I wanted to give her fun things. This first gift was inspired by a "Stress Week" gift pack I saw at the scrapbooking store. That one had recovered post-it note pack, recovered box of gum, one other food item and a card. It was flying out of the door at $12. I decided I could make mine own, and do a quick job of it. I found a small notebook with pink paper inside (Susan's favorite color), a bar of dark chocolate (every adult girl needs this) and a pack of gum. I love the ones that come in the little box. I thought I was being clever by making the decorations understated. Come on, there are 123 on staff here, surely many of them. craft. But, NO! (Okay, maybe there are closet crafters, anyway, I digress...) I was found out on the first day. She said the recovered gum box was what tipped her off. Oh well (sigh), now I don't have to find a kiddo to deliver things for me. On day two I gave her a fab "Fresh Cranberries" candle from Bath and Body Works. I thought this would throw her off. I found out that afternoon that she was onto me. Today she got one of my fun snowflakes (see the post below). Thursday is our "big gift" day. I had so much fun making the sled. I got the idea from the Cricut Messageboard. (Cricut.com) It took a while as each side of the sled is three layers to give it strength. I am nestling a Starbucks gift card inside of it.

My own Secret Santa has been amazing. On day one I got a mat stack, a fun item I never buy for myself. On days two and three I got those HUGE DCWV Stack with 180 pages, each. She is really going overboard, but I must admit that it is fun to get. She is way beyond our $15 limit. She just moved into her new house and is hoping to get engaged on Christmas day ( I am hopeful for her, too) so I am trying to come up with something fun to make for her.

The Used Auto Fairy confirred with my mechanic and said the Honda Odyssey is a screaming deal, so we pick her up on Thursday. My kids already named her Serenity. Yeah, I know it is a little odd to name our vehicles, but fun, too.

On a more sad note, I check the news often for news of James Kim. I am thrilled that his wife and girls are all found and doing well, but I still worry for him. This event makes me appreciate the simple things we have in our lives. My husband reading his book on the couch, my daughter reading AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS and my son planning our next summer garden.

I read a short article in the newspaper that really spoke to me. The person is doing research on happiness. She herself is very stressed. She has been trying an experiment. Each night before she does to bed she thinks about three good things from the day. Then she things about what it took for those things to happen and/or what she did that led to them. She reported that it has made an amazing difference in her life. Being thankful is one thing, being conscious of your part in that magic and finding the way to create it again is empowering.

"A List" Christmas Cards

I love lots of texture. These are some of the special cards I am making for a few select friends. The bases are acrylic colored tags. These were put out by Heidi Grace (or was it Heidi Swapp?) a few years ago. I loved them, but could not figure out how to use them. When they went on sale for 80% off, I bought a bunch. I have attached pictures of the children of the given families. Then I have added on snowfake and round bling rhinestones in different colors. The hangers are made from a fun yarn that sparkles. I have added crystal beads, snowflake sequins and ribbon to them. The backs feature a special "Merry Christmas" greating rubber sticker and a personal message from our family. I hope they will love them. These are temporarily attached to cards so they have nice presentation when received. Now on to the more standard cards that I make for others.

Glassy, Glittery Snowflake Decorations

I have this thing for snowflakes. I just love them. One year I had my students help me make some and now I have over 100 paper snowflakes that I hang from the ceilling in my classroom. Not many high school teachers decorate ( I don't do very much, just a little for fun) and my students seem to really enjoy it.

This was a blast to make. The base is an 8" chipboard snowflake make by www.makingmemories. com. I then used a blue stamp pad and added swirls to both sides. I covered that with tacky glue and applied this really cool superfine glass glitter that I recently purchased. Now I have to decide what I should use to hang it - ribbon, fun yarn, fish line, beaded string? Any suggestions? They will go in my windows. I have wreaths that hang on the outside. You can see the back side of them inside. I will hang them there, making the wreath back look like a frame.

Sledding Pictures - Makes you want to be a kid again!

Here are the sledding photos I promised. The blogging genie must have heard my prayers and fixed the posting site. Doesn't it make you want to go out and play int he snow?

Well, it is official, our van has died. The brake system went out and it is too old to find a new or new used one. So the search for a new vehicle has begun. We are zeroed in on a 1995 Honda Odyssey or a 2000 Subaru Outback. We know people who have kept them in amazing shape and they are both in our price range. The van feels great to drive and has lots of space, as well as seats. The Outback feels solid when I drive it and it is newer. There is about a $2,000 difference between the price tags. I wish the used auto Fairy God Mother would simply visit me and tell me which one to pick! It is a tough choice.

On Sunday we got our Christmas tree after Ethan's race. It was a brutal one - 9 degrees and about 8" of snow on the ground. He had technical difficulties, but finished the race. I am proud of him for that. We also went sledding. I have really fun action shots to post here, but the photo option seems to be down. I will post them when tat is an option again.