For a special friend I attempted my first Stair step card! I really hope she liked it..it was a super special birthday, her 80th and I am lucky to have met her.Verna is a joy to know with her wit and wisdom. She is so funny and charming and knows how to say a lot in just a few words...hmmmm something I am trying to learn...LOL
So, this was last years mantle, and I am not sure what to do for this year! It would either be a Nativity or maybe just this one again since I have a cut file all ready to go...any votes? :) I do have the new Winter Woodland cart for some 3-D houses and of course I spruced things up a bit on the mantle but we'll see where creativity and time take me this year! I loved that the moon was glow in the dark vinyl!1.jpg)
I had great fun today finishing up some cards for a friend overseas.....Afghanistan to be exact! Catie, my online scrapping friend, and I used Skype to have a virtual crop and it was a blast. It was so nice that we could share ideas and she was able to help suggest some things for me to try...so how did I do? :) I was able to do 22 cards this afternoon. Probably a record for me. So now I can concentrate on my own christmas cards. :)
Some of you out there already use this trick but it's such a good one I wanted to share ....I use a post-it note to line up tricky cuts and flip it over to apply my adhesive. It makes placement easier if you line up the bottom of the post-it with the bottom of your image/text.
My Daisy troop was learning about family, heritage and culture, so we made some family albums. They are 8X8 with white chipboard covers and five white cardstock pages. I was able to use my Cropodile big bite to make the holes for the book rings. On each page I used a 6X6 patterned paper from a set of Target dollar bin papers. Next I cut some scalloped squares(Accent Essentials) and a scalloped half from 8.5X11 papers and made them up in different combinations for the girls. It was a pretty quick project since it was the same elements throughtout. The girls had a good time sharing stories about their pictures. One of the Moms (thank you Teri!) created titles and phrases as well as a page to put on the inside of the covers with questions to fill in about their families and themselves. I had so much fun watching them create and their personalities all really came through. We had scallops and stickers and paper embellishments and they really came out nice. It was a little hectic, and I was so grateful for all the help I got from the Moms! It's such a good group of girls and Moms!
As cool weather starts in our area I always get into a cozy mood, wich generally also means crafting and baking! We've been apple picking, pie and cobbler making, and doing some fun fall activities and one rainy day my oldest daughter came home with an Amish Freindship Bread starter. Can you believe this is the first time we have ever made it ? Well even though I doubt the Amish put vanilla pudding in thier bread, it was yummy and my friends will surely be grateful to get some of their own...I decided to make mine a little more friendly by putting it into a small lunch sack with the directions a small loaf and the starter. Since I was looking for an activity for my Girl Scout troop, I googled the starter. One site has a good recipe for the bread and directions here...but you can also get the directions for starter on the allrecipies.com site.
It also gets me thinking about one of my favorite books I read to my girls. It's called Simple Gifts and it an illustration of the Shaker Hymn. I found it online recently here for a friend, and it keeps running through my mind. It is truley a gift from God to be able to be simply kind.
and then some! After weeks of pushing paper and pictures around I finally got this one done! I cut out many more extras but ended up with something I am reasonably happy with. The font is Hello Kitty and New Arrival for "love" and the clipboard is from Fabulous Finds. The stamps are from Close to My Heart, two different sets. 
" There's a bit of Spica glitter pens around the large cirlce and the word princess which didn't show on camera, and I layered the lettering with patterned paper. Even if it was a little too conservative with the colors, I am getting better about having more on the page. The greens are a little mixed but not too obvious in person... and I wish I had more imagination for embellishments, but ....Best of all it is complete! (I added more journaling on the back and I think this style suits me.) Thanks for looking! 
