Christmas Day Wishes

From My Family to Yours,

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too ! 

Day One Count Down

Christmas Eve...Only one more sleep...with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads until Santa drops in !

When I was a child, I saw a movie where Santa uses a "magic key" that lets him into everyone's front door when he stops by to deliver gifts on Christmas eve.  Living in the south, with very few homes with Santa's traditional depicted fireplace access, this was a great way to explain how Santa could enter our home.  I continued the story when my own children questioned how Santa got in our house with out a fireplace and now share that same story with my granddaughter. 

It's important to have traditions that you share with your family.  This is one of many that we have....another is decorating a Gingerbread House and yet another is driving around to see Christmas Lights while listening to Christmas tunes and eating candy canes. 

This year, I hope you are able to share your traditons with those you love.

I wanted to show you a new Santa tradition I started a couple of years ago...by collecting and displaying some beautiful silver and gold Santas. 

I love how the light catches their metallic glimmer and adds elegance to our dining room.

Enjoy your Christmas Eve...I have my side of the family coming over tonight for Christmas Eve dinner and gift exchance.  I can hardly wait to see everyone and share Christmas with them!

Day Two Count Down

WOW...it's getting so close I can almost feel it in the air now.  Christmas is only two days away !!! 

Today I wanted to share a few more special Santas I have displayed.

This is a Vintage Santa that a dear friend

gave me a few years ago.  He is from the early 1950's.

And here is my Texas Santa...as with everything in Texas,

he is large size...too much to hang on the tree but

he gets a special place of honor on the buffet

table in the dining room.

And these Santas are also of the large size variety...

in fact they are so big I have to set them on the floor

in the dining room !

Still a few more special Santas to share

so check back tomorrow for final dose of Santa goodness !

Day Three Count Down

Only Three more sleeps until it's Christmas Day !  Yipeeeee !

Today I wanted to share a few of my Woodland Santas. I love the more earthy colors of them in comparison to all the traditional red and white.  I have them grouped on a large end table in the living room.

There are still a few more Santas left to share so check back tomorrow please to get

your daily dose of Santa !

Day Four Count Down

One, Two, Three, FOUR....only FOUR more days until the guy in the red and white suit comes to bring us some gifts !   I have always told the kids when they ask about Santa that as long as they BELIEVE then Santa is REAL in your heart ! 

And I do dearly BELIEVE in the Spirit of Christmas !

Just a couple of more day before Christmas is here...be sure and check back to see a few more

Santas I have displayed in my house to bring some Christmas Cheer !

Day Five Count Down

Only five more sleeps until Santa makes his way here !

Encase you haven't guessed by now, I am slightly Santa obsessed !  LOL  I have over 300 Santa ornaments on my tree, along with assorted vintage glass balls to help add shine.  And about 1000 lights on a real Noble Fir tree to make sure each Santa ornament shines on the tree !  The pictures just can't do it justice but I will let you judge for yourself....

This is what greets you when you enter my

home from the front door. 

Makes me smile every time I come home !

Here is a close up of the Santa tree.

It shines brightly with the white lights and

mostly red and white Santa Ornaments.

And yes, I even have a Santa Tree Topper !

More to come tomorrow of other Santas around my house !

SIx Day Count Down

Still counting down....we are at 6 days before Christmas....I can hardly stand to wait for the big day !

Today's Santas are a few more fun shaped Santas that I have collected over the years.  Enjoy !

Antique Patriotic Santa

SANTA in a Box

Hand Painted Canvas Santa Star

Hand painted Real Pine Cone Santa

Tomorrow I will show you an overview of my entire Santa Tree....there are over 300 Santas on my tree ! You won't want to miss seeing it.  Ho Ho Ho

Seven Day Count Down

The days before Christmas are just flying by !  We are down to the last 7 days before Christmas.  WOW....
I hope you all have your presents bought and wrapped and tucked away safely under your tree by now.  If not I wish you luck in fighting the crowds to find the perfect gift !

Today I am sharing some of my favorite SHINY santas with you...

Pure Gold Santa Claus

Sequin Santa

Glass & Fur Santa

Hand Painted Glass Ball Santa

Check back tomorrow to see the last few unusual Santa Ornaments on our tree.

Eight Day Count Down

Eight days only until Christmas gets here !  Yipeeeeee !   Continuing the theme of Santas on my Santa Christmas theme, here a few more treasured Santa ornaments. These are more traditional santas.

Santa hanging up a stocking with a puppy in it ...too cute !

Santa in his sleigh

Santa and one of his reindeer

And the jolly guy's beautiful coat !

Tomorrow I will post even more fun santas...

Nine Day Count Down

Only nine more days before Santa comes to town !  Today I am going to share a few more of my santa ornaments with you. 

BBQ Santa

Cookie Baking Santa

Gardening Santa

Golfing Santa

And one of my all time favorites,

Pirate Santa !

More Santa goodness to come tomorrow so be sure and check back to see more of my santa collection.

10 Day Count Down ...

WOW...how did it get to be only 10 days before Christmas so quickly?  Luckily I have almost all my shopping finished.  I have spent the past couple of days getting the presents wrapped and under the tree so I am feeling pretty good about where I stand pre-Christmas wise !

I collect Santas and love getting to see all of my favorites that I set out around the house.  For the next few days I am going to post some of my most special Santas to help bring some Christmas cheer your way too !

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas !  And hope you enjoy your holiday time with your family and friends.


I am starting off with some of the Santas I have collected for our Santa Christmas Tree.  These ornaments have all been collected when we have traveled on trips.

Paris Santa we bought at top of Eiffel Tower during

our 20th Anniverary trip to Europe

Hand painted Sand Dollar Santa bought on a

trip to St. Augustine Florida for my youngest brothers wedding

Candian Santa from a trip to Calgary for work.

Irish Santa from our trip to Boston

And the hand painted Maui Santa from our

30th Anniversary trip this past August

More to come.....

2011 Christmas Banner

I LOVE making banners to display in my home.  In the past few years I have made Birthday Banners, Easter Banners, Halloween Banners, Thanksgiving Banners....it was finally time to tackle the all important Christmas Banner ! 

I collect Santas...not just a few, at last count I had about 200 that I display in various rooms of my home and my Christmas tree is decorated with about 300 plus santa ornaments.  So to say I like Santas is an understatement!  So I naturally gravitated towards making a Christmas Banner featuring Santa.

Each banner piece was made from a shaped piece of heavy cardstock, covered with patterned paper with a crepe paper border and then decorated with lots of Christmas embellishment treastures. On three of the pieces I attached the glittered letters Ho...when hung up, it now says HO HO HO !

Without further ado....here is my Christmas Banner, piece by piece.

When I was little I asked Santa one year, " please define good?

Ha, Ha.  I Found this metal piece that had that on it and just had to put it on my banner.

Close Up  of this first piece.  I added chipboard shapes and

added stickles to give them sparkle!

On this banner piece the Merry Christmas is suspended above

the background to give it a lot of dimension !

My favorite banner piece is this one!

I found the perfect vintage Santa paper for the background. 

For the 25 I used silver german glass glitter to cover the chipboard,

it looks amazing up close.  I used some vintage tinsel around the edges

 of the crepe paper.  I added more to the HO piece here...a glittered Believe,

a Santa and a red sleigh bell !

Again on this piece, I suspended the Joy over the

banner piece.

This piece is a tribute to Christmas Carols. I used

Joy to the World music paper as background.

And added titles from some of my favorite christmas songs. 

Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree,  etc.

Close up of this piece.  All the images are added on and popped up

for added dimension. And of course, more glitter !!

And here is the banner all strung up on a red and green tinsel garland.

Sorry the picture isn't so great but you get the idea of how it looks now all hung up !

Happy Thanksgiving Canvas Art

Just two more sleeps until the big TURKEY DAY is here.  Today I wanted to share an altered canvas art display I made to showcase a photo from our big Family Reunion Thanksgiving we did last year.

These are easy to make from scrapbook supplies you may already have laying around. 

Here are some quick directions if you want to make one of your own:
1. Using acrylic paint of your choice, lightly brush a canvas of your size choice.  I used a 12X12.
2. Set canvas aside and let air dry. Once dry, using a Distress Ink pad, I lightly inked the edges of my canvas
3. Select a patterned paper to match your theme and cut a piece about 4 1/2"X12" to run vertically and tear the edges on both sides. Ink edges as desired. Adhere to dry canvas about 1 inch from the left edge of the canvas.  You should use a good quality, quick dry scrapbook glue such as Scotch Liquid Quick Dry Glue. It holds great to the canvas and is easily found at craft stores. It goes on white but dries clear.
4. Cut a different piece of patterned paper 3 "X 12" to run horizontally. Use a craft border punch of your choice to punch just the bottom edge.  Crinkle the paper into a ball, unroll and repeat a couple of times until your paper is really crinkely (that's a word, right?).  Lightly rub an ink pad over the top, catching ink on the crinkled pieces.  Adhere to the canvas horizontally using the liquid glue.
5. Cut a 5"X7" piece of cardstock.  Use an embossing folder and emboss an image of your choice.  I used a Cricut Autumn Embossing  folder.  Using a sander (I used Tim Holtz sanding block), gently sand the tops of the embossed design.  Adhere the cardstock piece to the canvas overlapping your vertical piece of patterned paper slightly.
6. Make a photo mat to fit the size of your photo and adhere overlapping the embossed cardstock.  You can place your photo either horizontal as I have or vertical if you prefer.
7.  Embellish as you like with title, sayings, bling, etc.

Here is a close up of the embossed piece.

Now I just need to add my photo and we are all set to display on our buffet serving table this year.

Hope you give this a try sometime.  You can adapt to any theme and keep it simple like this or really go to town with your paper layering and embellishments.  I am working on a Christmas one right now that will be much more elaborate so come back and check that out soon.

Wishing you each a very Happy Thanksgiving !!  Gobble, Gobble

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

Well, we are down to the final 3 days before the big Thanksgiving Feast in the USA is upon us.  Time to start pulling out all the Thanksgiving decorations and getting them put up.  Luckily, last year I made quite a few things to help bring the Thanksgiving feeling to our family dinner. Here are some of those projects from 2010:

The mantle banner says Give Thanks. I made it with

various chipboard pieces covered in fall themed patterned paper.

I added a ruffled crepe paper trim around some of the pieces

and them decorated with all kinds of fall ribbons and

embellishments I had collected over the years. 

Loved how it turned out !

I made these special Thanksgiving candles

from glass jar candles I bought at Michaels

and then wrapped a strip of fall paper around the middle.

Then I used the Cricut Lacy Labels and Thanksgiving

cartridge to make these Thanksgiving themed

tags and hung from each with fibers. 

A few pilgrims and indians and some fall foliage scattered

around the table and we had lovely table decor.

For place settings we used gold chargers with our Turkey paper plates.

LOL...how is that for elegance for a crowd? 

My granddaughter and I made the napkin ring holders

our of cardstock and patterned paper rings, a scalloped shaped punchout,

and some felt pilgrims boys and girls in felt we bought at Hobby Lobby.

Tada ! 

So this year, all I need to do is unpack all these handmade gems and set the table !  Come back tomorrow and I will show you what I made for this year's Thanksgiving.

Finally, CRICUT CRAFT ROOM HELP

WOW...finally some help with Cricut Craft Room for those of you that want to try it out and have been lost on your own.  Narelle and Scrapalette have created a blog with all kinds of great tips just for Cricut Craft Room.  Just go to Cricut Craft Room Blog.   Thanks ladies !

Introducing Lady Cricut

I have a new scrapbook buddy...Lady Cricut.  She has a slight British accent and comes from a Royal Cricut Bloodline...or so she says.  She has decided to take up residence in my scraproom and appearantly decided to steal my crown for her very own.  We are going to have a talk about that...

Lady Cricut reigns over her scrapbook domain.

Lady Cricut is wearing her ever so fashionable Scrapbook apron. 

She is a great example to us all since she keeps her camera ready for picture taking

so she doesn't miss capturing those specials moments to treasure and share with others in her scrapbooks.

I have a feeling Lady Cricut is here to stay and will want to tag along on all my own scrapbook adventures

so don't be surprised if you see me with her at my next scrapbook event.

                                           

Halloween Aftermath

We enjoyed dressing up last night and giving out candy to all the cute kiddos that stopped by. Even though our kids are grown we both love carving a pumpkin every year to put out on Halloween night.  This year's efforts were done about an hour before the trick or treaters showed up so not too elaborate but cute.
The kiddos seemed to really love them.