Grandma's Sweet Treats recipe mini album

This mini was made by my Mom, as  Christmas gifts for me and my sister.  It is filled with old family recipes written by both of my Grandmas, in their handwriting.  (She scanned in the old recipe cards.)   There are even handwritten notes my Dad had put on one of the recipes at some point in time.  Seeing their handwriting brought back memories of both of them.  So don't let your handwriting hold you back from journaling, because someday someone will treasure having something in your handwriting!

Cricut:
From My Kitchen

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

"It's the MOST wonderful day ...of the year" is the Christmas carol refrain running through my head today, as I take a billion pictures of all the fun!  Celebrating the birth of Jesus with the people I love most in the world makes for a truly wonderful day. 

The stockings were hung by the fire with care... and filled with sock monkeys and wrapping paper to tear....
Such fun we have had this morning with sharing all our gifts to each other and now we are all curled up playing and drinking hot chocolate!   Besides my insanely awesome new Coach purse that my men (3 boys and husband) picked out all by themselves, my favorite thing I got I will show tomorrow on the blog.  My mom made me a recipe book (using From My Kitchen) filled with recipes from both of my Grandmothers.  She scanned the old recipe cards and printed them, so the recipes are all in my grandmas' handwriting!  Complete with drip spots from gravy and berries and other yummy stuff! 

As I've gotten older, I feel very nostalgic about the things passed on from family, like my rolling pin, which belonged to my Grandma.  I use it every time I make pie crust and wouldn't trade it for a million dollars.  I can imagine her rolling out her crust with it and muttering when it doesn't go into the pie pan smoothly, just like me and my mom do.  I have quilts passed down from my other Grandma that we use every day that I can imagine her patiently stitching.  So I was thrilled and amazed at this recipe book!  Plus, it makes me feel the love from my mom who spent lots of time making it for me!!!!  Here's a peek:

I hope for a time of joy and peace for everyone today-Merry Christmas!

Christmas Gift Card holders

I made two gift card holders to make some of the Christmas gift cards look a bit more special.  It was my first try at making any, but they turned out well.  They are from Plaintain Schoolbook-the tall ball envelope cut at 3 3/4.   The folding was pretty easy and the holes were cut out by the cricut, so I just used some textured ribbon to tie them shut.  The paper is from the Fancy Pants line called St. Nick-very vintage looking and pretty.  The rub-ons and stickers were included in the St. Nick paper pack. 

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-gift card holder cut
Paper-Fancy Pants St. Nick
ribbons from my stash

Embossed Holly Christmas card

More holly cards, but this time I used one of my embossing folders and holly paper.  The punch for very merry is SU also.

Paper-Stampin Up Holly Berry Bouquet
Stamps-SU
punch-SU word window

Striped Christmas cards

Love this paper!!!  You can't see it very well in the pictures, but it is also glittered on the red stripes and is so pretty!  The striped paper on these two cards is from SU called Holly Berry Bouquet.  The scallop punch and stamps are also from SU.

Paper-SU Holly Berry Bouquet, real red cardstock
Stamp Sets-SU
ink-SU real red

Frosty the Snowman tag

The challenge for this week at BBTB2 was to make a tag from the Winter Frolic cartridge, so I made this one today for one of the packages I was giftwrapping.    There are lots of cute tags on this cart!  I also made another, simpler tag from Winter Woodlands.  I'm going to enter both in the cardzTV challenge to make two gift tags.

I cut this at 4 1/2 and somehow it was bigger than I expected!    I cut out the layers for the snowman  on the page corresponding to this tag and added those on for interest, plus the word Frosty.  The back has to/from that I cut from Winter Woodlands, but I forgot to get a picture of it!  Oops!  I expect you can imagine that just fine :)

Cricut:
Winter Frolic-all cuts
Paper-cranberry cardstock, snowman paper is My Mind's Eye
ribbon-SU real red

Cricut:
Winter Woodland-all cuts
Paper-white glitter cardstock from Archievers, blue shimmer cardstock from my stash
I did punch a hole for the ribbon after I took this.

December calendar page

Here's the December calendar page I have hanging up.  I'm going to do a post soon with the whole year together.  I used Designer's Calendar for the grid, numbers, and month.

Cricut:
Doodlecharms-stocking and present
Winter Woodlands-peace
Designer's Calendar-all other cuts
Paper-assorted cardstock

I'm going to link this to The Paper Varienty's anything goes challenge this week.

sock monkey thanks card

So son #2 had a sock monkey themed birthday party recently.  This is one of the thank you cards I made for him to write on.   The thanks is from Winter Woodland.  (I had kind of forgotten that cart had to/from, thanks, and some other words on it.)  The fun sock monkey paper I found at Hobby Lobby!  The stamp inside at the bottom (left him lots of room to write) is from Stampin Up.  The cardstock is Stampin Up creamy caramel for the base and cherry cobbler and very vanilla for the inside.  

Cricut: 

Winter Woodland-thanks

Paper-SU, Hobby Lobby sock monkey paper (don't know the brand)

Stamp-SU

I'm linking this to the Clean and Scentsible anything goes challenge.

Merry Christmas card with embossing

This card was simple and easy to mass produce, with a little help from my Big Kick for the embossing.

Paper-SU cherry cobbler and garden green cardstock, plus white and christmas lodge polka dot paper
Stamps-SU

Holly Christmas card

I love how this card turned out!  The holly is from the CM Cheerful Seasons cartridge.  The paper is from Stampin Up called Holly Berry Bouquet.  I've used about every scrap of it! 

Cricut:
CM Cheerful Seasons-holly
Paper-SU Holly Berry Bouquet, real red cardstock, plus assorted green from my stash
Stamps-SU

Frostwood Lodge Christmas card

This card uses my new SU set from this year, Frostwood Lodge.  I used my white gel pen to do the snow on the roof, after the stickle I tried kept making the ink run and turn weird colors.

Paper-SU early espresso, cherry cobbler, and soft suede, patterned paper is from the Christmas Lodge set.

Stamps-SU Frostwood Lodge

Christmas mini lunchbox cards

These will go into the kid's lunchboxes sometime this month, just for fun!  They are loving the notes from home occasionally in their lunch.  I put notes from Grandma that she had made for them in their lunchbox one day and they came home asking "Is Grandma here, Mom?  Cause I got a note from her today!"   These all use Doodlecharms, my second favorite cartridge.

Cricut:
Doodlecharms-all cuts except circles
Plaintain schoolbook-circles
Signo Uniball white pen
Jumbo Java chalk ink
Paper-Assorted cardstock scraps, white glitter paper for the stocking

I'm going to add this to the Cuttlebug spot challenge to use scraps on the project.  This one is done entirely from scraps!

happy (Christmas morning fun with the gifts) layout

This layout is from Christmas morning last year after all the packages had been opened and thrill of playing with all the new toys had begun (good times at our house!).  The paper is CM's Holidazzle and the cuts are from Tis the Season (sorry, can't stop using all the cute cuts on it!!!).  I love this little Christmas tree!

Cricut:
Tis the Season-all cuts
Paper-CM Holidazzle

I'm going to link this to the SOUS challenge to use a tree on the project.

Christmas mini shape album (pic heavy!)

This is my first attempt at a shape album, mostly using Doodlecharms.  I made Christmas shapes for the pages:  a stocking, two ornaments, a Christmas tree, and a present and used last year's Echo Park Christmas line for the paper.

Cricut:
Doodlecharms-stocking, present, tree pages
Joys of the Season-ornament page
CM Cheerful Seasons-present on cover
Mickey Font-JOY and LOVE
Paper-Echo Park's Merry Christmas

I'm going to link this to the Fantabulous Cricut challenge to have the project have something to do with a gift.  This has the gift cut on the front and the last page is the gift shape from Doodlecharms.