A Lot Of Catching Up To Do...

...And I don't know that I'll get it all done tonight. I have, finally, got all my pictures from Christmas downloaded to my PC, but don't have them uploaded to my Kodak Gallery for public viewing yet. I'll be working on that over the next several days while I'm home recuperating from my tonsillectomy. That's scheduled for tomorrow morning, by the way, and I'm getting more nervous as the time gets closer. Anyway, I have several photos to share of some of the projects I made just before Christmas. This is part of the reason I couldn't find time to post to my blog!


Here are the rest of my Christmas cards for this year. I think we counted about 85 of them that went out in the mail. I had a nice assortment from these three cards and all the Christmas cards you see in previous posts. The first two cards were made using the 'Holiday Tag Team' stamp set and the third card used the 'Perfect Presentation' and 'Many Merry Messages' sets. I'll try to post more details, later, about all the colors and accessories used on these cards.









The next four photos are gifts that I made for co-workers. The first two are made by using 5 X 7 acrylic photo frames and each one accomodates a calendar and a small Post-It note pad. The ink pens were purchased at the dollar store and I just rolled a pieced of DSP and placed inside each one.


The Post-It note holders in these photos use 4 X 6 acrylic photo frames. The calendars are made from chipboard coasters and the clip boards were purchased at CVS Pharmacy. The first set uses the Fall Flowers DSP and the second uses the Outlaw DSP.


If you'd like to view any of these pictures a little more closely, you should be able to see an enlarged version by clicking on the pictures. The next three photos are the dry erase/cork boards that I made for the kids in our family this year. There were a total of six of them, but the girls' boards were all the same as were the boys'. These are made using the old wooden window frames that we had taken out of our house earlier this year. The frames were painted with a base coat of magnetic paint, so the kids can use magnets around the outside of the board. I put dry erase board (purchased in a 4' X 8' sheet at Lowe's) in the top pane and corkboard in the bottom. I stamped each of their names, using the Big Deal alphabet, on white tissue paper. The girls' names were heat embossed using Irridescent Ice embossing powder. I adhered the names to the boards using Crystal Effects. I used the 'Bold Butterfly' (retired) stamp set to stamp images around the frame in Jet Black StazOn. I then colored the images with acrylic paints. I found some cute drawer pulls at Target that I attached to the bottom of the frame. A wire mesh pencil cup, with a ribbon handle, hangs from one of the drawer pulls to hold an eraser, markers, and spare magnets. The boards for the boys were stamped using the sports themed stamp sets from SU.












The next two images are the handbags I sewed for Curt's Mom and his sister. Curt's parents spent 28 years in Taiwan as Baptist missionaries, hence the reason for the Oriental themed gifts. His sister spent her entire childhood there, so I thought they'd enjoy these.



The next set of photos is a gift box and a blank set of notecards made using the Symbols of Solicitude stamp set and some stamps I picked up at Hobby Lobby. It is near impossible to find any oriental themed designer paper, so I had to make my own. The gift box contained 12 cards, 4 each of the designs below.




I have more pictures to share of our celebrations with family this Christmas, but won't be able to get them all uploaded this evening. I'll get that done soon, though, because I know we have family members who are very anxious to see those. TTFN!