Merry Christmas To All

Wanted to wish you all a 

Very Merry Christmas

and the

Happiest of New Years

I just love snow at Christmas time and I was missing my folks so I decided to take the plunge and go home for Christmas.  It snowed yesterday morning and was so beautiful to see.  It's been 9 years since I've seen snow at Christmas time. This is a shot out the back door of my mother's house looking towards my step-father's garden.

We also made some divinity.  I haven't had any divinity for 9 years either because you can't make it in Florida and have it turn out correctly.  And man I wanna tell ya, this batch turned out so perfectly, it was still in the mountain that we poored it out in to the pan in.  And tasted magical, just melt in your mouth. Love it!!!!!

So............ya, I just wanted to share what I am doing for my Christmas 2013 and I hope you are getting your family & friends meters full as well!

Hugs,

~Jody

Christmas Tea Party Invitation

Hey there bloggers, wanted to share my Tea Party Invitation now that everybody has received theirs in the mail.  I used the new Tim Holtz Ice Skate die.  I saw on his blog that he made a card with it today and it reminded me that I hadn't posted my card yet, thanks for the reminder Tim, lol!

I used white cardstock to make my skates, actually I made 8 pair, lol.  I found some glitter paper at Michael's for the blades and I used kraftcore black to make the heel of each skate.  I sanded each heel  down a bit and inked them with some vintage photo too.  I laced each one with cream colored embroidery floss that I distressed with vintage photo before lacing.  I used a beading needle to thread through the slits.  The first one I did, I ended up tearing the paper so a little trick I will share with you is, place a spot of glossy accents at the edge of each slit and let it dry over night.  It prevented the thread from tearing through the paper as I laced and you didn't see it after all the laces were over the top either.  That probably wasn't an issue if you used grungepaper like he did.  The lettering was done on the computer both on the outside and the inside.  The snowflakes and  wintery florals at the bottom are from a Close To My Heart stamp called Snow Flurries, D1384.  Not sure if it's still available but I love this stamp set.  I used white embossing powder.  The edges were inked with Chipped Sapphire distress ink.  On the inside I also used the Mover & Shaper Ice Skate to ask for an RSVP.  The blue blob in the middle of the inside is just a piece of torn paper I used to cover up my address, lol.  

 

 The Ice Skate die is so cool.  It just reminds me of the days of old.  I have an old pair that I got at a yard sale that I hang on my door at Christmas time.  I had never adorned them before but since I have now seen what Tim Holtz can do with a pair of old skates you can bet I will be adorning mine this year.  It has become kind of the theme to my Tea Party to this year so it will help if I have them all decorated up on the front door when every one arrives.  It should be a sight to behold.  I'll be sure to take pictures and share with you later.

Well, that's it for me today.  Hope you had a great Friday and an even better weekend.

Hugs,

~Jody

Merry Christmas To All

Good Morning Bloggers, have you seen the new Tim Holtz tag for Dec 2013.  It's a beauty, I think.  I am in love with the way that poinsettia turned out.  My red and green colors are not quite as dark as his as I had to use a different kind of ink.  I used Close to my Heart ink, which is the only permanent ink I had in those colors.  But the tag turned out just as good, I thought.  I had purchased some of the frosted film quite a while back and had a play with it once but did not get the result I was looking for at that particular time so I stashed it and had not worked with it again.  I also had gotten some Cleary For Art sheets but had not played with them yet.  Guess I was waiting for the perfect moment, lol.  It's pretty cool stuff how it rolls and curls all by itself when heated.  Then you can manipulate it yourself for a short time before it cools.  Way Cool!!

The only other thing I had to improvise on was the Harlequin stencil.  I haven't had a chance to purchase any stencils yet so I made my own.  I die cut the Harlequin decorative strip and cut it in half and glued it top to bottom lining up the outline as best I could.  It was more square that way and easier to manipulate where I wanted my markings to be.  It worked beautifully.  I liked how it turned out so much, that I, too, made another one. 

This time I used some blue ink.  I stopped at Micheal's to see what they had in archival ink for blue.  Got a Colorbox brand that I had never tried before.  My Micheal's only carries a very limited supply of Tim Holtz/Ranger products.  They had some Ranger Archival inks but only in the huge pads, which I didn't want so my only other choice was this Colorbox brand.  It worked good though.  I went with a blue/silver/white theme and I do like the results.  See what you think.

I started with blue cardstock.  Marbled some white picket fence on the tag first.  Then I embossed the sentiment with silver.  I ran some white ink around the outside as well as the stencil part and then sprayed it with Perfect Pearl.  I used some brushed pewter distress stain on the leaves and around the outside of the petals.  I went a little lighter with the white splatter this time as I thought I may have gotten too much on the first one.   However, you can't hardly see it in this picture.  May need to do that again.  I just love how that Clearly For Art film just curls and shapes itself.  Soooo Pretty!

Well, it's shower time for me.  Hope you have a great day!
Hugs,
~Jody

Post Thanksgiving

Hey there bloggers, just wanted to drop in and say I hope ya'll had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you got your family/friend meters filled up.  I sure did!  I was able to spend the day with my daughter, Miranda.  She only lives an hour away but we seldom see each other.  We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.  Her and her friend even brought three pies, lol, for three people?  Well, I guess that's a pie a piece, lol.  My favorite was the cherry pie.  It was store bought but unbaked so we popped it in the oven right before we sat down to eat.  It was still warm when the urge to devour it appeared.  A dollop of whip cream on top and oh man, was that ever great.  Talk about the perfect ending, the only thing left to do was nap, and that we did.  After it got dark, we stoked up a little fire in the fire pit outside.  It's rare that you can share a fire in Florida, it's normally just to dang warm here, but Thanksgiving night it was only going to be about 50º so it was perfect for a fire. 

Here's a little tag I made to give to all the tea ladies at the November Tea Party.  It was very nice to see everyone once again and we were even visited by Carrie.  She had moved to Chicago last May and no one had heard much from her, including myself.  Then there she was at the tea party.  Was nice to see her.  The tea party was great with lots of good food and lots of good friends. 

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!
Hugs,
~Jody