It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Hi Friends!

I am SO sorry I have been away so very long. H1N1 went through my house, and then it was Thanksgiving, and then I had to take down fall decor, and decorate (and shop) for Christmas (which we are having here this year)...and so my story goes. But I am back baby!

Over the weekend I put the finishing touches on the tree(s) and the entire house, inside and out, is DONE. Most of the shopping...DONE! ( key word: most) Have I sent cards yet? Nope. Have I wrapped anything? Nada. Zip. Zilch. Still plenty o' time, right?

BUT, the good part is our home is a winter wonderland, sparkling with twinkle lights aplenty, and glittered within an inch of its life. ( I will take some photos and post in the next days or so). I really, REALLY love LOVE me some Christmastime! I think I may actually be a magpie...anything sparkles and I am all over it.

Speaking of glitter and yummy sparkliness: I finally, for the first time in over a month, got to play in my studio and create!! I didnt do as much as I wanted to...I had planned to do a 2 page LO using the new Rockstar papers, but when it came to sitting down to create, I really just wanted to put Christmas music on and play in the glitter. So, I made a few holiday cards instead.

(I'll get to the Rockstar pages this weekend and post.)

So, for my Mother In Law I made this swanky cocktail Holiday Cheers! card... it goes along with some of the gifts we bought her. I used all CTMH products (except the cocktail stamp, which I colored in with Copics); ctmh Jingle Papers and cardstock; the snowflakes are made using punches (mainly MS punches) on ctmh white cardstock; the sentiment is from Ms. Holiday stamp set. The red and silver glitter is from the retired glitter stack, but any fine red/silver glitter will work. The rest of the glitter is Prisma.

My Party Animal/Happy New Years Card is bright, festive and fun...oh, and sparkling, natch! The martini and sentiment stamp is from 'our craft lounge' (everything is colored in with copics)...everything else is ctmh, except the mad amounts of Stickles I used. The paper is ctmh Whoops A Daisy, and ctmh cardstock hydrangea, ocean and textured cardstock in Citrus Leaf. CTMH stamps used: Merry Monsters, Spot On Backgrounds, and Please Join Us. ( the icicles border punch is by MS and the google eyes are from craft store). Cheers! ( hmmm...seems I had a cocktail theme going for a bit there)

Lastly, I wanted to make a winter street scene with the houses from the Neighborhood Stampset by CTMH. This is what I came up with.

Products List:

Patterened paper: ctmh Aspen

Cardstock: (ctmh white daisy)

Stamps: (all ctmh) Festive Thoughts ( for the sentiment, which is heat embossed in Silver, but you cant tell that in these horrid pictures, sorry); most of the trees are from The Beauty Of Christmas; and then, yes, Neighborhood. The houses, the bit of fence, the lamposts and the car are all from the 'Hood.

I paperpieced a bit, foam-squared, and prisma'd my heart out. The car tires are stamped in black, black embossed and cut out. The wreaths, they were a bit of a pain. The scale of the houses/doors were so darn tiny...so my wreaths had to be tiny. So, I used a tiny hole punch for the middles ( on green cardstock) and regular sized hole punch around the little hole, viola wreath(s)! The tree on the car I just free cut out a triangle from green cardstock, and a little trunk. The same with the tree on the townhouse. It was a bush on the stamp, but I wanted a conical holiday tree shape, so I just free-hand cut one out.

As always, you can click on the photos and see it bigger/in more detail. And, feel free to ask any questions you may have, I promise to get back to you.

Happy Holidays!

~Cheryl