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Happy Wednesday! I hope your week has been a good one so far. Today we enjoyed beautiful 60 degree weather but that is all suppose to change tomorrow when snow and cold are due to arrive. Hopefully it won't stick around long.
Today I want to share this with you.

I have had this idea in my head for awhile. I started working on it a few weeks ago but had to stop to fill some Etsy orders. I was finally able to finish it last night.
I started by cutting out the stockings from the My Timeless Template Stocking Template using digital patterened paper from Amy Jaz Designs A Very Vintage Christmas Kit Next I created medallions using more paper from the kit, a limitless layers die and this tutorial. The letters were cut with SCAL using the Bantang font then covered with red glitter.
The snowflakes were cut using an image in SCAL then covered in Clear German Glass Gitter. Silver bells were added to the ones on the top. A pure poppy button was added to the one in the middle of the O. Holly was cut from more PP using the Holly Jolly Dies and rhinestones were added for the berries. Red Garland, Paper lace and machine stiching finish it off. The stockings are attached to New Leaf Twill ribbon and backed with Hunter Green and Scarlet Jewel cardstock. I also created loops on both sides to make it easy to hang.
It was a lot of work but am really happy with how it came out. I hope you like it too. I will be back on Saturday with a new Sketch For You To Try. Until then I hope the rest of your week is a good one and as always thanks for stopping by.

Hanukkah Dreidel Gift Bag Box

Happy Monday, I hope you had a good weekend and your week has started out well. We went to see Breaking Dawn today and thankfully we made it there and back without any problems this time. Unfortunately I didn't like it. I think the book is much better. Emilia really liked the movie though.
Today I want to share a project I made for this years Papercrafts Holiday Cards Magazine back in the spring but it never got accepted.

I started by cutting Favor It Box Die 1 out of Silver Shimmer Cardstock. Next I cut Mat Stack one out of Stampers Select White Cardstock then stamped an image from the coordinating stamp set using Enchanted Evening Ink. After I was done with that I stamped the dreidel image from the Mazel Tov set and colored it with Copics, cut it out then added it to the circle. Finally I finished the box off with 2 Ocean Tides Buttons. Inside is the perfect place to add a bag filled with Hanukkah Gelt and a Dreidel

I think these would make great Hanukkah Gifts. That's it for now. I hope the rest of your week is a good one and I will be back soon with more to share.

November Papertrey Bloghop

Happy Friday. I hope your Thanksgiving was a good one if you celebrated it yesterday. Today is the 25th of the month which means it is time for another Papertrey blog hop.

This month we were to use this photo for inspiration

This is what I came up with.

I started by using this months Sketch For You to Try again as my layout.

I thought this sketch was perfect for the image from Stylish Sentiments and I was right. Thanks again June for sending it to me! Once I cut it down it was a perfect fit. Next I matted it on wood veneer then stitched around it with red thread. When I was done with that I created the bottom piece using images from Love Lives Here Holiday then added tiny pearls to the middle of the heart ornaments. The green background paper is from Echo Parks All I want for Christmas Paper Pack. The red Gingham cardstock is from the My Time Made Easy GaGa for Gingham Paper Pack and I reduced it by 50%. Finally I finished the card off with more Wood Veneer, 2 snowflakes from the new Winter Penguin Die Collection and red rhinestones.
I look forward to seeing what everyone else has come up with now. You can see a full list of participants on Nicole's Blog. I hope the rest of your day is a great one and as always thanks for stopping by.

Sweet 16 That Turned Out To Be Not So Sweet

Happy Monday. I hope your weekend was a good one. Today is my niece Alexandras 16th birthday. We were going to go see the new Twilight movie Breaking Dawn to celebrate and I was going to write about it after we got back but unfortunately we never made it to the movie because we got into a car accident on the way there. Thankfully none of us were seriously hurt but the driver that hit us was not looking good. They think she may have had a seizure. I hope she will be okay. My sister was driving and Emilia and I were in the back seat. We were stopped at a red light and all of sudden out of no where it felt like we were on the bummer cars ride at the amusement part but 10 times harder. The car was damaged pretty badly but can be fixed. The most important thing is we are okay. What an awful thing to happen on your 16th birthday though. Seeing as this is Thanksgiving week I am even more thankful we are all alive right now.
Earlier this morning I started this post about the card I made for her birthday and still want to share it with you. Most of you know from my past posts she loves Hello Kitty. I made her this card last year and she loved it so I had to make her a Hello Kitty card again. This time I used this SVG file. This is what I came up with


She loved it but after what happened I don't know when she is going to get her license now. Hopefully in time she will want to drive. In the meantime she can enjoy the card and spending the money I put inside the pocket that was made with the library die and stamped with a sentiment from Fillable Frames. Hopefully the rest of the day will turn out better then it started for her.
I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving if you are celebrating it and I hope to be back soon with more to share.

Etsygreetings Holiday Blog Hop

Happy Monday! Today I am participating in the Etsygreeting's Team Holiday Blog Hop. The theme for this hop is to share our favorite handmade holiday traditions. As most of you know I am Jewish and celebrate Hanukkah. This year Hanukkah starts On December 20th and lasts for 7 days. Our favorite thing to do for Hanukkah is to light the menorah but since the theme of this bloghop is a favorite HANDMADE tradition I thought I would show you how to make your own Beeswax candles to use in the Menorah.
First you start with sheets of Beeswax. I got mine here
Next you cut it into strips.

When you are done with that you add a piece of wick to the middle of a strip and press it into the wax. Then start rolling and shaping it.

This is what you will get when you are done

Making these kinds of candles is not hard and would be a fun project to do with your kids too!

It is also traditional to eat foods fried in oil for Hanukkah which helps to remind us of the miracle of oil that burned for eight days during this time so I am also sharing my recipe for Latkes (Crisp Fried Potato Pancakes) with you.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 lbs of potatoes
1 large onion
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of matzo meal or 2 to 3 Tablespoons of flour
Vegetable Oil for Frying

Instructions:
1.Start by peeling and grating the potatoes and onion. I use a food processor for this. Then squeeze out as much water as possible.
3. Add the eggs, Matzo meal or flour and the salt. Mix well.
5. Let rest for 5 minutes
In the meantime heat about 1/8 inch of oil in a heavy skillet.
When the oil is hot start adding the potato mixture by the spoonfuls and push them down with the back of the spoon.
Fry them on each size until golden brown and crisp.
You can eat them plain or with sour cream or applesauce.



I hope you have enjoyed learning about some handmade things you can do for Hanukkah. Be sure to click on the right arrow to take you to the next blog in the hop. If you missed the blog before me click on the left arrow. You can also see a list of all the participants by clicking on the circle. As always thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is a great one!

A Very Vintage Christmas And Unwanted Visitors

Happy Friday! I hope your week has been a good one. Mine did not start out very well. Last Wednesday night Emilia thought she saw a lizard in the house. I thought she was imagining things because as far as I know we don't have lizards here in Denver. Well fast forward to late Saturday night. We were sitting on the couch watching TV and all of a sudden she looked at me and I knew from the look on her face what she saw was back and it wasn't a lizard it was my worst nightmare it was a mouse! I am terrified of those things so I screamed for Rich and starting climbing on top of the couch. He went to look for it but it was no were to be found. We did discover where it came from though and Sunday morning Rich fixed that problem. On top of that we put poison down. I thought the problem was solved but Monday morning Rich said he heard something inside one of our kitchen walls where he had drilled holes for a computer cable a few years ago so he patched those. Once again I thought we solved the problem but fast forward again to Tuesday afternoon. I went to throw something away in the trash under the kitchen sink and I thought I saw a tail. I quickly shut the cupboard door and my heart started racing. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Of course Rich was at work so I convinced Emilia to look. Sure enough there was a dead mouse in there. The good news is at least it was dead but just the thought of those things in my house dead or alive really creeps me out. I am just praying that the poison has taken care of the problem and they are all gone now. On top of that my printer starting acting up on Monday night. The ink kept getting clogged. I think I have it fixed for now, I sure hope so because this printer is only a year old. I also had issues with my SCAL this week too. Just the thought of losing that program had me in tears. Thankfully it is still working though. After all this there is some good news to share. I had my 100th sale in my Etsy shop Wednedsay night. I was hoping to met that goal by the end of the year but it happened earlier! I am super happy about this because I have been working very hard for the last few years to get sales there. It is not easy but at least all my hard work is starting to pay off. Speaking of Etsy. My Etsygreeting team is currently having a holiday boutique.

There are lots of great deals so be sure to check it out. Anyways here is to hoping the week ends better than it started. Now if you are still with me on to some crafty stuff.
Today Amy J is releasing another Digi kit. This one is called Vintage Christmas and is packed full of goodness.

This is what I came up with

I started by making my own version of the PTI Front And Center Die. I loved the concept of that die but wanted it to fit the PTI stamp boxes so I was thrilled to be able to make it work for that. I created the base in SCAL but still had to use a punch for the holes because they are so small, the Cricut did not cut them out enough. After cutting the front and back panels I cut another piece a bit smaller than the base cut off the top then added strips of patterned paper from the digital kit and machine stitched it. After that I machine stitched the quilted piece to the base and added a piece of paper lace. Next I cut off the top of a stamp box then attached the front and back pieces to it.
When I was done with that I made a poinsettia flower using this cut file that was reduced to 50% and more digital paper. I tied a double bow made from olive seam binding and attached it to the bottom of the flower. Finally I finished it off with a jingle bell,tiny tag and the Merry Christmas Sentiment from the original mixed messages set then attached it to the box. These boxes could make great packaging for gifts this Christmas and is a great way to recycle all those stamp boxes too. I would be happy to share the file with you if you have SCAL. Email me and I will send it to you. That's all for now. hope your weekend will be a great one and as always thanks for stopping by.

November Sketch For You To Try

Happy Saturday. It is also the 1st Saturday of the month which means it is time for another Sketch For You To Try

This month our sponser is Verve Stamps

Julie is offering a set of choice to a SFYTT participant that uses Verve in their creation. This random winner will be announced with the December SFYTT.
This is the sketch

This is what I came up with

I chose to work with the super cute To The Moon Stamp set. I started by stamping the frame on white cardstock, then I cut it into a square and attached it to some Simply Chartreuse Cardstock. Next I stamped the elephant and colored her with grey and pink Copics then paper pieced the ears. When I was done with that I paper pieced some chevron patterned paper into the frame then added the elephant with foam tape. After that I added the baby girl sentiment from the same set. Finally I stamped the hanger image on top of the frame and added a tiny pearl that I colored to match the patterened paper. All the patterned paper used on this card is from the You+Me digital scrapbook kit by Amy Jaz Designs. I finished off the card with some Enchanted Evening Saddle stitched ribbon, a hibiscus button and lots of machine stitching.
Please also join me in welcoming our guest designer this month Broni Holcombe
Be sure to check out her blog and the other sisters blogs to see what they have done with this sketch too.
Amber Hight
Amy Sheffer
Carol Burrage
Jodi Collins
Megan Lock
Kerry Johnson
Susan Liles
Jen Tapler
Becky Carafa
Iwona Palamountain (Chupa)
I hope you will play along as well. You can find all the details and the place to link your card on Jen's Blog
That's it for now. I hope the rest of your weekend is a great one and as always thanks for stopping by.

Exciting News To Share

Happy Thursday! I hope your week has been a good one. Things are continuing to melt here after the snowstorm we had on Wednesday. We are suppose to get another round on Saturday but for now the sun is out and it is warming up nicely.
Today I want to share some exciting news with you. I have been chosen to be a part of Amy Jaz Designs creative team. I am very excited about this because as most of you know I love working with digital papers and Amy is great digital designer. This is her first kit. You + Me

I love the patterns and colors in this one. Here is the first project I made using the new kit.

I have been wanting to make one of these buggy's for awhile now and thought this would be the perfect chance. I started with the Bouncing Baby Buggy Template and reduced it to 50% then cut the base out of Enchanted Evening Cardstock. After that I added paper from the kit on the sides,hood and wheels. When I was done with that I added some pink baby pom pom trim then made the rosettes using this cut file also reduced by 50% and more digital paper. When I was done with that I added some New Leaf Satin ribbon tied in a bow and spring moss buttons them attached them to the sides of the hood. Finally I finished it off with a tag from the kit that I also reduced in size and stamped the word baby from the original PTI Mixed Messages set. As you can see I filled the buggy with Hersey's kisses but you could also fill them with small baby items such as a pacifier or baby socks too. These would make great favors at a baby shower.
There are so many things you can do with this kit. Amy has some great scrapbook pages she has made with it here. Also Be sure to check out what my fellow teammates Cara and Nat have done with this kit too.
I will be back on Saturday with another project I made with this kit and the November Sketch For You To Try. Until then I hope the rest of your week is a great one and as always thanks for stopping by.

Hanukkah Cards

Happy Tuesday! I hope you all had a good Halloween yesterday if you celebrated it. Emilia has chosen not to trick or treat anymore but we still hand out candy. Most years we only have a few kids but this year we had a lot. My sister had bought me a big bag of 300 suckers for a craft project I wanted to do earlier in the year. I used a few though so they came in handy last night. It is hard to believe it is the 1st of November today too. It is all downhill to Christmas and Hanukkah now. Hanukkah starts on Dec 20th this year. I have been working on holiday items for my Etsy shop for a few weeks. If you remember a few months ago I made this Apple Iris Folded Card for Rosh Hashanna. I loved how that card came out so much I decided to make something similar for Hanukkah too. This is what I came up with.

The process was basically the same except I used this pattern for the dreidel. The patterned paper came from this digital paper pack. Gold Shimmer ribbon,a navy button and machine stitching finish it off.

I also came up with a new idea for a Menorah Card. This idea came to be after seeing birthday cards made with rolled paper candles. The base of the menorah is from Amy Abad. She was kind enough to share the SVG file with me after I saw this card she made with it on her blog last year. This is what I came up with.

I used more patterned paper from the same paper pack I used on the Dreidel card to make the candles then added silver cording for the flames. The base of the menorah was cut out of Enchanted Evening Cardstock and then embossed with tiny dots. I cut the letters using SCAl then added them to the menorah base with crystal effects. I finished the card off with machine stitching.
That's all for now were are expecting another snow storm here tomorrow hopefully it won't be as much as last week. We lost a few big branches in that one but at least it melted fast. I will be back soon with more to share. Until then I hope the rest of your week is a great one.