Little House Ornaments

Thanks so much for all of the Anniversary congratulations and comments.  I haven't had a chance to respond to everything yet but I will.  We had our family party Saturday and today I seem to have come down with a cold - sneezing, runny eyes and general aches and pains.  I will rest up and drink lots of tea and I hope to have this be just a short term thing.

I wanted to share the ornament that my mother-in-law made for this year.  She makes about fifty of these for all of the grandchildren, great nieces and nephews, a few friends and this year added the newest member of the family - great granddaughter Inge who was born in September.

A few years ago, I shared this photo of six of the ornaments from over the years - our younger son reassembled them into a ornament person!

She started making the ornaments in 1998 and, with the move from their house to a condo this year, there wasn't a lot of time to get them ready.  I helped her by die cutting all of the felt pieces so they would be ready to embroider the names on the back and sew together.

We used my Big Shot and the Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Artful Dwellings for the house shape and cut the door and window with the Mini Openings set.  The heart at the top is from the mini Love Struck set.  There are three layers, the blue top with the openings and a solid red for the center and solid blue for the back.  Then names and the date are embroidered on the back of each ornament.

I have been making .png files of the ornaments so I can use them for digital scrapping projects - here is one from an earlier year. 

I started writing this early in the day and didn't get to post it until late - so I am a little off the usual schedule.  Fingers crossed that a good night's sleep and some cold medicine will have me back to normal soon...  Please stay inside safe and warm if you are in the areas affected by the extreme cold - it is dangerous out there!

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Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary (33 years!).  We weren't actually snowed in but we stayed at home getting things ready for a family party today.  We usually have everyone over a couple of days after Christmas for an anniversary party for my husband's parents (yes, our anniversaries are one week apart!).  This year the party is a week later than usual but I still have holiday decorations up - it isn't Twelfth Night yet.

We were married while we were both in graduate school and somehow we never got around to ordering full wedding albums.  I just have the proofs (remember, this was in the dark ages before digital photography!).  Over the past few years I have been working on scanning and "cleaning up" the photos that I do have.  I thought I'd share a few with you today...

Here I am with my Dad, starting the walk down the aisle.  Since we were married during the Christmas season, my flowers included holly and evergreens.  My bouquet had white carnations (the flower of the month for January), the bridesmaids and flower girls had red carnations, and my maid of honor had the white carnations with the fine red lines - like peppermint.

We were married in the evening because I had always liked the idea of a candlelight wedding.  Our church used these candle holders to line the aisle for Christmas services and I added the red plaid bows to coordinate with the wedding colors (is plaid a color?).

We dressed at the church since it was in the evening and snowy.  These photos were taken in the church library.  I realized later that you could see all of the stickers on the spines.  When I look at this photo now, I wonder why the photographer used such a strong flash.  We did end up with some unflattering shadows.  Of course, he couldn't see how the photos looked instantly as we do now with digital equipment.

My best friend from college was my maid of honor.  Steve's three sisters and two brothers were all in the wedding party, along with my brother and two of our college friends.

My mother's gown had sparkly beading on the chiffon overlay and my mother-in-law's gown had a hand painted design.  My gown was lace and extremely covered up compared to today's wedding styles.

We were lucky to have two grandmothers at the wedding.  My grandmother (in the middle) was 88 when we were married and she passed away the following fall (by then she was "in her 89th year" as she would say).  Steve's grandmother was 71 so we were lucky to have many more years with her.

This photo is one of the "casual" photos - it always makes me laugh because it is so obviously posed!

Steve is the oldest of his generation so his youngest cousins, six and seven years old at the time, were the ring bearer and senior flower girl.  My niece was the three year old flower girl - I love seeing this photo of her having fun during the "formal" shots.

We posed for this photo with all of my family except my grandmother.  Rebecca was very good about posing for so many photos.

Here we are with Steve's family and grandparents.  Even after color correcting and cleaning up the scan there were a couple of things that bothered me about this photo - first the shadow behind Steve's Dad and Grandpa and the shadow line on the left side by my youngest brother-in-law.

I did some more editing and cloned away those distractions.

Next, I "erased" the man in the portrait behind my sister-in-law.  It looked like he was peering over her shoulder and made the photo confusing to look at (who is that behind Kimberley?).

Finally, I filled in the triangular gap between my father-in-law and his father.  The light color was distracting and, because Grandpa was leaning in a bit, it looks like my father-in-law is very wide (I think another flash shadow was the cause).  It is amazing how much you can do with older photos - it just takes time to make them look as perfect as possible.

Thanks for letting me share with you - looking back on these photos brings back so many memories.  I still have quite a few more to do but eventually we will have a wedding album - maybe for our 35th? 

We didn't end up with the huge amount of snow they had to the north of Boston but it is very cold  - definitely a good day to be home and enjoying family time!  I hope that you are staying inside or only going out with lots of layers and good protective gear if you are also in the path of this storm!

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Winter Storm

We are in the middle of a big winter storm here in Massachusetts.  It snowed all day Thursday and it will probably continue for a good part of today.  It is a light and fluffy snow with that pretty sparkle that makes it seem magical.  The snow made me think of a project I did a couple of years ago.

This 6 x 6 shadowbox tray from 7Gypsies is really fun to decorate.  I did this when I was working with Creative Charms.  They no longer sell to directly to consumers but I am sure you can find similar embellishments.  You can read all of the details about this project HERE.

We are having a family party this Saturday and I decided that it would be best to get out to get the food on Thursday - just in case conditions were not great for a shopping trip today.  It looks like that was a good choice since the Governor has closed state offices and has asked for people to avoid unnecessary travel.  When I was at the store, I saw this car with the windshield wipers up and wondered if some of you who live in warmer climates have ever seen this before. 

When it gets very cold and snowy and you need to leave your car parked outside, raising the wipers will help you avoid the problem of chipping the ice away to make them functional.  I am doing my own version of Project Life/Project 365 and just trying to take a photo each day of something "ordinary" that I notice in the world around me. 

click on this photo to see more about this card

We will probably be snowed in at least for a while today - I may try designing some new snowflakes.  If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that I have a "thing" about snowflakes.  I just wish there weren't quite so many of them in my front yard right now!

Stay safe and enjoy the snow day if you also live in the area covered by this storm. 
  
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Quick and Easy Birthday Card

 

When you make cards, people generally expect a hand made card from you for all occasions.  It is a good idea to have a stock of birthday cards on hand so you will always be ready to celebrate even if you can't make a personalized card.  Our nephew has a birthday in between Thanksgiving and Christmas and this year I made his card as a prototype for a "generic" card that could be used for just about anyone.

I have started to get back to coloring stamped images.  It is very relaxing to do some coloring and just let your mind wander.  It is even easier if you heat emboss the stamped design. This gives you a tiny ridge to help you stay in the lines.

This stamp is from Great Impressions and was the stamp of the month in December at my local shop Ink About It.  They always have a half price stamp for the month and I usually can't resist buying it!

I stamped the image with Versamark ink and heat embossed the image with gold fine detail embossing powder from Ranger.  After I colored the image with ProMarkers, I trimmed the cardstock to a rectangle just a little bigger than the finished image.  Then I matted it with red cardstock and centered the design on an A2 card.

When I saw the candles on his cake, I realized that the dotted ones matched the stamped image on the card - a lucky coincidence!

I added a white liner to the blue card base and stamped the "Celebrate" circle image and the "Happy Birthday" sentiment with the Close To My Heart Perfect Fit  - Birthday stamp set (B1417 - click HERE to see the full set).  I cut the stamp to place the "Happy" above the "Birthday" to fit my card more neatly.

I like to make a holder for cash or a gift card inside the front of the card to keep them from falling out when the card is opened.  I cut a piece of red cardstock to 3 3/4 inches wide by about 2 1/2 inches and punched the top edge with the border punch from the Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page Cathedral Lace Set.

Scor-Tape works very well to hold the pocket to the card securely.  Just remember to leave the punched side open so you can fit the cash or card inside!

Do you make up "generic" cards ahead of time or do you prefer to create each card as a custom fit for the recipient?  I usually make cards that are personalized but I think I will make a few more like this one to be prepared for those birthdays that "sneak up" on you.

It is snowing here and lots of schools in the area (including those in our town) are cancelled.  I am sure the kids won't mind a few extra days of vacation.  Stay safe and warm if you are in the path of this storm.

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Happy 2014!

 

Happy New Year!  I hope that 2014 will be a great year filled with good health, happiness and lots of creativity!

I expect to get back to doing more tutorials and will also be offering new classes this year (some live and some on a self-paced, subscription basis).  Please let me know if there are subjects you'd like me to cover.  One topic that has been requested is photo editing and manipulation - how do I take my average photos and turn them into something a bit more special...

This is the straight from the camera photo I used to create the background paper for my Happy New Year wish at the top of this post.  Would you like to learn how I did it?  Stay tuned...it really isn't very difficult to do.

I hope you have a wonderful day - stay warm and safe if you are in the snowy areas!

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