The Forgotten Christmas Gift

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that early in December I'd attended our annual Christmas luncheon with a few other demonstrators.

We exchange gifts that have been made using something from Stampin' Up!

The gift can begin by being something purchased inexpensively, but which we've personalized with SU "stuff".

Sometimes I get an idea for this year's gift early in the year and then just hug it to my heart until it's time to get crackin' on getting it done.

Sometimes, like this year, I wait til the last minute (that's my middle name, by the way - Last Minute Lulu!).  So I made a trip to that big craft store, looking for ideas...  I always want it to be something I haven't seen any of the other demonstrators using or sharing.

And while there, I purchased materials to make not one, but TWO, items.  I decided I'm make them both and which ever one I liked the best (i.e., the one I messed up the least!  LOL) would be the one I used for the gift exchange.

Well, I'm not going to show you THAT one today - nope, I'm going to share the forgotten gift.

So whaddya think?

OH!  You want to see what it is, and what I did to it?


OK - let's try this one...

That's better - now you can see it's a Christmas stocking that I decorated, using the Big Shot and the Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die.

I cut the rickrack (and everything else I used on the stocking) in felt.  I did have to piece the rickrack in order to get it all the way around the top of the stocking.

Here are a few close ups of other items I used to decorate the stocking.

I used the ornaments Framelit to cut the two pieces on the left.  I used the Scentsational framelits for the candy cane.

I added rhinestones and the clear Dazzling Details to add some sparkle to the ornaments and then used the silver pen from the Holiday mini as well as Dazzling Details on the candy cane.

For the green ornament I added pearls and used the Red Dazzling Diamonds.  The gingerbread man has buttons made from retired sparkly brads (can't think of the exact name - but if you bought some, I'll bet you have some hanging around somewhere!).  His eyes are Dazzling Diamonds.

The Christmas tree was quite a challenge!  I used the retired sparkly brads again, as well as a couple of glitter brads, then went over it with the red Dazzling Diamonds.

Another gingerbread man - decorated the same way.  And finally the cup of cocoa that I decorated with the red Dazzling Diamonds...

The whole thing came out really cute! 

So why was it the Forgotten Gift? 

Well, it just wasn't as unique to me as the one I actually took for the gift exchange!

I'll share that with you another day...

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

Thanksgiving & ORNAMENTS

I mentioned the other day that I'd gone out of town for Thanksgiving weekend.  I went to visit with several of my downline, who also happen to have been friends, BEFORE they signed up with Stampin' Up!

Susan, Mick & I drove from San Diego on Friday night.  Susan had to work Friday, so we left around 6 PM.  It's about a 5-1/2 hour drive to get to Roxy's, and, generally on a Friday night the traffic is NUTS!!

All those Los Angelenos (and other southern Californians) hit the road to Vegas on Friday night...  And they can't seem to WAIT to get there and contribute their hard-earned bucks to the casinos...

But this past Friday night traffic was very light!  Guess everyone had gone to Grandma's house on Wednesday and were spending the weekend.  Hooray!  We had a breezy trip over...

Roxy is actually Susan's downline (they've been friends lots longer than I've known either one of them, so it made sense...) and Roxy's friend Colleen, is HER downline.

We all got together on Saturday afternoon for Show & Tell.  Colleen makes lots of cards to sell to friend and relatives, so we got to see a BUNCH she has ready to mail out.  All very creative!

And I brought a box of things to share with all of them.  I think the best part about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is the sharing.  Very few are reluctant to share whatever they're currently working on - and very few object to anyone's CASEing their ideas (CASE: Copy And Share Everything).

So, I showed them all a very simple little gift card holder I'd just discovered on-line - and I'll share it with you in my next post.

Susan had decided before we left, that she wanted to make the ornament from the front of the Holiday catalog for her Bunco ladies - that's TWELVE of these babies!



So, we gathered everyone's framelits, Susan stamped her art out, and I started cutting them out.

You need 20 each of both the larger and the smaller ornaments for each ornament.  There are 12 people in Susan's Bunco group - you do the math!  That's a BUNCH of ornaments to stamp, cut out, and do the rest of the magic to turn them into these beautiful items.

OK, to be specific, we needed 240 of EACH of the ornaments in order to complete 12 finished items..

Roxy elected to cook the turkey while Susan and I toiled away stamping and cutting...  Which was OK by us!  We will get to eat the results of her handiwork in a couple of hours!

So Susan just kept a cuttin' and while she was doing that, I was folding them all in half...  When we finished (at 11 that night!) all 240 were cut out and all but 60 of each of them were folded and ready for her to do the next step - gluing them all together to create a 3-D ornament.

Roxy had invited a couple of friends to join us for Thanksgiving dinner.  Cheryl, standing alongside Susan, is an artist - I mean a REAL artist!  She paints in oils, acrylics and watercolors, and sells her items at craft shows in the area.  She brought a number of her things along to show us after dinner.  They were all beautiful  And she thought our ornaments were beautiful!  A gal after my own heart!  LOL.

I talked to Susan today - she's got everything glued together but the pieces I didn't fold.  They'll be the back pieces.

She said she might come down one night this week so I can help her glue these babies together.  I hope she does!  Projects always go faster when you're working and chatting.

And there's still plenty to do to get them finished, so I'm sure we can fill at least one evening, trying to complete them.

Oh - and all those people driving to Vegas that we missed Friday evening?  Well, we didn't see them on Monday when we drove home, either !  Yeehaw!  A record 4-1/2 hour return trip - and no speeding!  Also only one pit stop, but that was OK.

Thanks for stopping by  - come back again!