Happy Holiday Season!

You know that phrase "I try to take one day at a time, but lately several have ganged up on me at once." That's how I've been feeling. Christmas shopping started late this year. It's a white Christmas Eve and I haven't made a list and checked it twice to see if I'm done shopping. I hope so because Susy Snowflake is tap tap tappin at the window pane and I'm not sure I'll get out today. I'm just on the computer because I'm waiting for my Cricut to finish cutting the last of my tags so I can get the gift wrapping under control.


Don't forget the All Things Spring box of cards will ship to Operation Write Home on Dec 31. I need your cards by Dec 29 so I can get them Tucked Stamped Sorted and Packed for shipping.

Merry Christmas Everyone! May Santa bring those craft supplies you asked for and may your Holiday Season be safe, warm and wonderful. Big Holiday Hugs to you and yours.

Hogs and Kisses

These cute piggies are from...you guessed it...SVGcuts.com. They are from the Cuddly Animals set which is so cute and, you guessed it again, cuddly. I love all Mary's Cuddly Characters. I punched the inside corner with a heart photo corner by Fiskars for a dress up. The paper is American Crafts Craft Fair collection.

WMD - Wisdom of the Aged

Years ago my mother recognized that with 7 children and 34 grandchildren, keeping track of birthdays and holidays was going to be increasingly difficult as families grew and age took her memory. So she solved the problem by a) sending money rather than gifts and b) delegating distribution to the parents. It's a brilliant plan really, no one has ever returned the gift because it was the wrong size or color or age appropriateness. 

So each year at Thanksgiving Mom writes checks to my siblings and I as the current year's Christmas gift and birthday giving for the following year. When the kids were young I just used the money to buy gifts. Now the kids are on to me; they want the cash. Figures. So I try to find some clever way to gift the money to the kids. This year I made these adorable Toy Soldier Boxes. The cut file and assembly video are free on SVGcuts.com.

I also remind the young uns to send Grandma a thank you card, which has never happened. Lightbulb!...This year I'm going to give each kid an addressed, stamped Thank You card and tell them when they give it back to me with a nice note, ready to mail, they can have their Grandma Gift. I'm feeling a new tradition blossoming. Too bad it took me 30 years to think of it. This is why I talk to myself... I'm only brilliant in complete sentences.

WMD - 24 Quick Cards

I got this great idea on Pinterest. It was originally posted on SIMPLY SIMPLE STAMPING with Connie Stewart under the Big Shot tab. You have to scroll down the page quite a way. Connie has a seriously awesome blog. She is a Stampin' Up demonstrator so she posts really clever and lovely crafts; even a pie crust recipe. I went there to get the link for the cards and got lost for an hour. I pinned four or five things before I decided just to pin the whole blog.

In one evening I made 24 card faces from four 12x12 sheets of coordinating card stock. If you use double sided you can get 12 cards from two sheets. (You end up with one 1.5x12 inch strip left over from each sheet from which I'll make adorable Spring rosettes.) Use 8.5x11 and get 16 cards from 4 sheets with no waste. You get the idea. A greeting and a drop of bling or a snip of ribbon and you are good to go. Another go-to pattern for using scraps or making quantities in a jiffy.