I finally got all of my Christmas cards completed and have mailed out the ones that were made for a Christmas Card swap. Whew, that is a fair sized project done and I feel less stressed since its completion.

All of the cards you see here have cuts from my Cricut. The two wreaths were cut using the Joys of the Season cartridge. The red "berries" are gell half baubles that I bought at the last Expo I attended. I don't know the real name of them, the manufacturer or what outlet I bought them from. But they are so pretty and they shine so nicely. The scalloped circles were cut using the nestabilities. 

The cuts on the card on the right and the one below are from the Christmas Cheer cartridge. I guess I got carried away using this cartridge because it is no longer any good. The last time I put it in the slot on my Cricut to make more cuts, it froze my Cricut. I had to remove the cartridge and turn off the machine. I put the cartridge in my Juke Box and it did the same thing, even tho I didn't have its button depressed. Again I had to turn my Cricut off and remove the cartridge. We tried it on two other machines and it did the same thing to them. Unfortunately, I didn't get it loaded into my Gypsy before it died.


 I absolutely love this card. The stocking is from the Christmas Cheer cartridge. The printed paper that I used has the "Night before Christmas" poem printed on it.
I had originally wanted to put a Santa on the card, but couldn't find my "believe" stamp, so I used the stocking which goes very nicely with the poem.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you like my cards as much as I enjoyed making them.
Take care

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
I can't believe its been nearly a month since I have posted. Guess I had better start minding my "p"s & "q"s, I have just let things slip this past month. I did however, get my cards sent to my OWH shipper. Since I am new to this, I didn't have many Christmas cards to send, but did add some generic cards.
It is now time to start making cards for Valentine's day. I have five done. Lots more to do and only a few weeks left. All Valentine cards must be to the shipper by January 7. Since there are no swaps in my groups next month, I can concentrate on making some cards for OWH. I can also enter some of their challenges. Challenges are so much fun and they help me think "outside the box".
If you like to make cards; Valentine cards, Christmas cards, cards for all occasions, go here to find out about Operation Write Home. Its fun, its doing for others and can be very rewarding.
Hope you all had a very nice Thanksgiving. 
Take care

This is a very simple card and looks much better in person. I made this for the JoAnn.com/Craft for a cause 2010 challenge via the Stars and Stamps home page. I don't expect to win anything, I just wanted to make a card. The card will be sent to Operation Write Home group.
This card is also for the SCS card sketch challenge SC301 for last week. The print paper is a Heidi grace design. Its a real cute print and I cut it up to make several cards. The paper is double sided with the red on the back, the candy strip at the bottom is also from the paper. The green stripped paper is from a DCWV Christmas stack from a year or so ago.

This card is also a Stars and Stamps challenge. It is challenge #39 and can be found here. I used a Sizzix holiday embossing folder, Martha Stewart snowflake punch and Stampabilities stamp. The papers I used are from my stash.
This card is also my SSSD "word - stripe" card. My partner sent me a card using stripped paper, so I had to come up with something different. I think I accomplished that challenge. While this is a very simple card, I really like it.
I hope you have enjoyed your visit and hope you come back soon.  Take care

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I love the paper the little house is cut from. Its a Heidi grace design and is double sided. The red used here is the other side of the print. I used the Sizzix swiss dot embossing folder and the Merry Christmas is from Cloud 9. I made this card for the SCS sketch 302. I placed red and green bling on the eve of the house. I like this sketch and will probably use it for some other cards.
Thank you for stopping buy and I hope you have enjoyed seeing my card.

I read recipe books. I have all sorts and have never used a recipe out of most of them. The ones I have have no value, except maybe for the Searchlight cookbook. Its older than I am, and that makes it an antique.
Since I should stop buying cookbooks, I am making them. I join a recipe swap and when the pages come, I list the recipes, the contributors and their state in the front of the album. The recipe pages are in the same order that I have listed them.
My daughter loves to cook and I hope that someday she will have and enjoy these books as much as I have enjoyed putting them together.
The recipe on this page is for ginger snaps. It is an old recipe from the Watkins Products, Inc. Any one remember them? They use to come by the house selling their products (spices, personal care, liniments, etc.) much like the Fuller Brush man did.
JR Watkins is still doing business, but they are now online. That is a long way from a salesman going door-to-door. Hmmmm, I'll have to go see if Fuller Brush is still in business.
I'm glad you came buy. Oh, don't forget to check out the Operation Write home web site. The button is to the left.   Take care

I found a wonderful site. Its called Operation Write Home. They send handmade cards to our deployed heroes to help them keep in touch with their families and friends.

Christmas is coming and they need lots of holiday cards to send. Deadline for mailing the cards to  OWH is October 31. They take cards all year long, but for the Special Day cards they need 5 to 6 weeks in advance. 

I do card swaps and have finally found something to do with all the beautiful cards I get. There is only one real no-no for the cards and that is NO GLITTER. We all know what happens when we use glitter, and that can put our men and women in grave danger.
They also don't want hand written sentiments on the card. The reason for this is in the info they provide.
The OWH link above takes you to the mail room with info for mailing the cards. From there you can get to other areas with more info and even challenges.

As soon as I get my swaps completed and mailed, I'm going to make winter holiday cards to send to OWH. 

Will you join me? 
Take care

The challenge was to make as many (at least 4) different items using one 12 x 12 piece of printed paper. I also used cardstock for the foundations and embellishments. I made two ATCs, a joy fold card, a top fold card, a tag and a teabag holder.
The flower spray is cut using Cricut Bloom cartridge. The flower centers are buttons and/or bling.
I had never made an ATC and I don't really know what they are for, but it was easy enough. I also had never made a teabag holder, let alone, ever heard of them. I messed up a couple sheets of cardstock before I got the scoring measurements right on the teabag holder. I enjoyed doing this challenge.
Thank you for coming by and take care