A little Monkey Business

Well here we are just two days til Christmas. If you were to peek in my window right now all would seem serene as I sit at my laptop by the fire with candles glowing, soup on the stove filling my house with a wonderful aroma.  Errrrrrrrrrk.  Stop right there.  What a day from H E double toothpicks. haha.  I took a day of "vacation" to get some things done before Christmas and just to have a couple of days to relax.  WELL.  Last night our furnace wasn't working. It has been acting up lately.  It is ready to retire I'm afraid.  Anywho....My husband had to work so when he left this morning he left a message for our heating and cooling guy and started a fire in our fireplace to warm the house. Nice thought right.  Well the flu wasn't opened all the way and I awoke to a house filling with smoke.  I am frantically trying to get the flu open as smoke alarms are going off.  I run outside to see if the smoke is coming out of the chimney and as I am standing in the driveway in shorts and a T-shirt in freezing temperatures.. up the driveway comes my heating and cooling guy (he was bringing me a heater to warm my house until he could get to me later this afternoon) I usher him into the house real quick like to get his help and he is able to flu open.  I think he was sent to me by Angels.  THANK YOU LUKE!  What a nightmare.  So I finally got my house aired out and cleaned up.  NOW I am going to relax for the rest of the afternoon.

Last weekend we had a birthday party for my Great-Nephew Preston who turned 5 yesterday.  Happy Birthday Preston!  He is such a cutie.  I made this card for him.  He wasn't really into the cards all that much but I thought you might be a little more impressed with it than he was haha.

I used a Tim Holtz emobossing folder for the background which makes it look like a tree trunk.  I went over the embossed paper with a dark brown ink to give it dimension.  I got this cute image from Dustin Pike's website.  I think he was actually a freebie.  His site is awesome and he offers freebies all the time.  You can find his site HERE.  I cut out the cute vines with my Cricut Zoobaloo cartridge. 

I hope everyone has a great day!

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well Christmas comes every year whether I'm ready or not!  Each year my husband and I, along with a group of friends have a Progressive Dinner Party.  It is so much fun.  The basic idea is that you go to a different home for each course of the meal.  We start out with appetizers at one home, go to the next home for salads, the next home for the main course and then of course a final home for dessert.

Last weekend was our dinner party.  My husband and I were in charge of the main course this year.  We cheated!  We had food ordered and brought in from a local BBQ place.  It was a good thing because I have been battling a cold and having the food already prepared was a lifesaver!  I honestly don't think I would have made it if I would have been cooking for 16 people.

Each year I make the couples a Christmas card and then they each get a small gift.  This year I made a card that I had learned to make at Archivers.  It was a class on some of the Tim Holtz techniques.  I had been wanting to learn about using some of the Tim Holtz products so I took the class.  I loved the card so much I made 25 of them! YIKES! What was I thinking???   This card is made using a stamp set called "Letter to Santa" from the Tim Holtz collection. 

The stamp set includes everything you need except the stamp that says BELIEVE.  I learned very quickly that Tim Holtz tequniques are all about layering.  I cut out a square of white card stock 4 1/2 x 4 1/2.  I used a distressing tool to wear the edges of the paper to make it look worn.  Once that was done I used an ink dauber to rub Tim Holtz Barn Door distress ink all around the edges.  I then stamped the image of the Santa  using a black Staz On ink pad.  Using the same ink pad I stamped the words along the bottom edge of the paper and then twice more working my way up the left side of the paper.    I used a smaller dauber and inked the red again inside the Santa image to lightly color his suit and hat.  I used Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress ink to lightly ink his face and although it isn't shown on this page, I used the Tim Holtz Peeled Paint Distress Ink to color in a few of the holly leaves on his head.  I used the Pine branch and stamped it several times in the upper right hand corner and then used a glue pen and Flower Soft in the color Sage to highlight the branches. I cut out the numbers 25 and then used the Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber in Pitch Black to color the numbers.  I also used Stickles on his beard and hair to lightly give him some sparkle.

I gave this card to each of my guests along with a candy dish full of yummy chocolates.  I bought celphane and tied it together with a gold bow.

I had these pics on my SD card so I thought I would share the pictures of my front door and tree with you since they were there.

Have a great day!                                                                                                  

Cha Cha Cha!

I just finished knitting a "Cha Cha Scarf".  I wanted to share this with you because it was so easy.  I bought the yarn at Urban Arts and Crafts however I've seen it on line everywhere.  I have also found awesome instructional video of how to make the scarf on Youtube. I will put the video below.  I know this scarf looks like it would be hard to make but it is very easy.  The yarn actually makes the ruffle, even a beginner can do this scarf.  Urban Arts and Crafts gave me a small sheet with directions but you can also find them on line but it is really just using the "knit" stitch over and over.

The yarn used to make the scarf is a little pricey.  I don't remember exactly what I paid but I think it was somewhere in the area of $28.00.  Like I mentioned above, you just use the "knit" stitch.  That's it!  If you don't know how to do the "knit" stitch you can find directions on line or watch the video below.  I also find that you can get someone to help in yarn specialty stores and they are usually more than happy to help.

I started by casting on 12 stitches but I've seen various directions, some using 15.  You could really use as many stitches as you want to get to the desired width of the sccarf.  One skein of yarn is needed is used so when determining how many stitches to start with, I wouldn't make it too wide though or your scarf would be shorter.

This scarf works up really quickly and would make an awesome gift. Nothing says love like a homemade gift.  Anyone can BUY a scarf but it really means something if someone takes the time to make it.  I hope you give it a try!
Urban Arts and Crafts website is Here..  Instructional video are also below on the left side of my blog.  If you make a scarf please send me your pictures so I can put them on my blog.



Have a great day!