Warm and Wonderful for #FF1024
Round About Winter for Atlantic Hearts and Card Concept

Pine & Berry Botanicuts Pine and Ruscus for Paper Players #621 - it's blog candy time

Happy Sunday.

It's the fabulous Ann's turn to host our final challenge for 2022 and it's a color challenge.  It's also the perfect opportunity for me to spread a little Christmas cheer.  I have a little goodie bag of crafting goodies available as blog candy.  I received the stencil, tag die and stamp that I used on today's cards from The Greetery along with my last order and there was a spare one.  I will be adding the spare one to the blog candy goodie bag along with some other crafting goodies.

What do you have to do for the blog candy?  Just answer this question either in comments on this post - or via email.  I will leave the blog candy question open until Christmas and then choose a winner from the answers submitted.  That's it.

What's the question:  What's your favorite Christmas memory or tradition from childhood?   That's it.  Really simple and I can't wait to read your responses!

Here's a sneak peek of my card for today:

Screen Shot 2022-12-11 at 11.23.23 AM

So, here's our challenge for this week.

For the card I began with inking up the Pine and Berry background stamp.  I then used the stencil and some red Lunar Paste to create the ribbon.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment and used the little tag die to create the sentiment.  I die-cut and inked up the Botanicut Pine leaves and then heat embossed the die-cut Ruscus leaves.    I clustered  the leaves together and put them under the tag and added an old gold enamel dot.

Here's my full card:

Botanicuts-Pine

I love this stencil - it's perfect for any occasion - birthdays, Christmas, etc.  And, don't forget, you could own this stencil, too.  All you have to do to be in the running to receive it is answer the question above :-)

As always, the design team have some fabulous inspiration for you:

It's sad to say that this is the final challenge with our wonderful 2022 Guest Designers.  Cindy, Jennie and Christy it has been a pleasure having you on our team this year.  Thank you for being such great GDs!

On a personal note:

I promise to share a couple more photos of our little touches of decorations.  Firstly, we put a couple of pots up over summer with trees and plants in them and then added a couple off lit trees and pot fillers for winter.  The lights come on at and they add a soft glow to the deck.  It helps that we had some great snow this week!

Deck

As we are on the top floor our decks aren't covered and it's a pretty windy spot.  So we are limited on what we can put out there.  But it sure does look pretty with all that snow!

On the inside, we don't have a lot of wall space so we added this wall art for winter and I just love it.  It fits perfectly with the photo above :-)

WINTERWONDERLAND

One more.  The ikea bookshelves that we put up has these little cubbies that I have used to create little vignettes.  Here's the first one:

Screen Shot 2022-12-11 at 11.49.35 AM

Isn't that pretty?  I love those snowflakes - well, actually I am a little obsessed with them!  The risers are also snowflakes.  I used them as candle holders and thought the distressed look of them went well with the birch candles :-). Looking at them makes me smile!

Well, I have just three days left at work and will then be off for the rest of the year!  I cannot wait to have some time just to sit back and relax.  This has been quite the year and some downtime is just what the doctor ordered!  I'll be back later in the week with some cards and some more photos!  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe:

  • Cardstock:  Recollections Vanilla
  • Stencil:  The Greetery
  • Stamp and tag:  The Greetery
  • Die-cuts:  Botanicuts Pine and Botanicuts Ruscus

 

 

Comments

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Mary Walker

My Dad was a letter carrier in Ohio and had to work as late as needed on Christmas Eve to get all the mail delivered. As soon as he came home, before he even changed clothes, we started decorating the Christmas tree. He had a hot toddy and started singing Christmas carols. My Mom thought he sounded horrid, but my brothers and I loved it! My Mom was from Ireland and it was the tradition to wait until Christmas Eve to decorate so that's what we did too! I'm 75 and still wait until Christmas Eve to decorate the tree, but no hot toddy for me, I prefer egg nog.

Karen Lang

What a beautiful card, Jaydee.
Some of my fondest memories of Christmas in the "good old days" are of my siblings & I pulling taffy......we would each get a "glob" & pull it till it was set. Also, Dad would make homemade ice cream. We would take turns turning the crank on the ice cream churn. The boys were smart & took their turns early when it was easy to crank!! Then after it "curing" we would all sit around the table with a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup & peanuts on top. Sometimes it made you so cold we would put our parkas on to finish our bowl of ice cream! We had such a fun times. Wonderful memories!
Share some of your fondest memories of childhood Christmas.

Anne Marie Hile

So many things to love about this post, Jaydee. Your card is simply stunning! I love how you featured the challenge colors. Your decor is always on point! I love seeing how you decorate every year.

And a favorite Christmas memory from childhood...I have so many but one that stands out right now is the tradition of making homemade pierogie a few weeks before Christmas. It was a production...we filled about 50 cookie sheets in preparation for the holidays.

My grandmother's kitchen was the home base. I remember fondly being there with my many aunts and my grandma in that kitchen. I am the oldest grandchild by many years on that side of my family, so most of my cousins never had that same experience. Grandma Genny had a "role" assigned to everyone on this day. You might have been making the dough, rolling the dough, filling the dough, prepping potatoes, kraut or cottage cheese mixture. ( I remember the year I was SO excited when I was "promoted" to roll the dough.) My grandma didn't have the counter space that we are accustomed to now, so not only did we use the kitchen and dining room table for assembly, there was an ironing board set up with the dough roller to expand the counter space. That kitchen was SO full of love and happiness and I am so thankful that I learned from my grandmother. I have so many wonderful memories and even though I'm far away from home I try to recreate this tradition every year (on a MUCH smaller scale). Sorry, that was a long comment, but thank you for the prompt to share a memory that s so near and dear to me. Merry Christmas my friend! Sending all of the holiday hugs your way.

Christy Stanford

Beautiful card, Jaydee! Love how the stenciled ribbon turned out over the stamped background. I have never tried anything with stencils and paste but I've seen some amazing creations out there! Your decorations look beautiful, too. When I was growing up, my mom always went totally bananas with decorations for Christmas (she still does). She had these four little angels who spelled out NOEL and a kissing Santa and Mrs. Claus, and my brother and I liked to go rearrange the decorations (spell out LONE or LENO or nonsense with the angels, move Santa and Mrs. Claus so they weren't kissing). We still do it if we go to my parents' house near Christmas, just to see how long it takes my mom to notice :) Now we've got to teach her grandkids to do that too!

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee, what a lovely card! I love the beautiful background and that big, red bow steals the show! I love it! Your holiday decor makes me smile! Oh, how I miss going home for Christmas. The farm was a magical place and all my memories go back to that little farmhouse in Indiana. My Mom worked so hard to make sure the holidays were special. Lots of cookies, fudge and treats to go along with a new toy every year. Wishing you a lovely holiday season, My Friend. ENJOY your time off and relax and refresh you soul! Lots of love to you!

LeAnne Pugliese

Your card is just beautiful, Jaydee, as are your decorations and artwork! My favorite memory of Christmas is making cookies...I make all the same ones my mom and grandmother made...and I've added a few new ones to the mix as well! None of them have any calories, either, HAHAHA!

JOANNE JAMES

Firstly, what a beautiful card Jaydee! I love the subtle background detail and the stencilled bow, which allow your beautiful tag and foliage detail to shine. I have just bought some stencil sheets as I am hoping to experiment with my (underused) Silhouette cutting machine and make some of my own over the Christmas period, just for fun - I'll let you know how I get on! If it all goes badly wrong, I'll head off to the Greetery lol! Love the home decor shelf and little pots too; I bought some artificial outside lit trees this year to go either side of my front door and I'm really pleased with them - sometimes it's just the little things! Enjoy your festive break!

Jennie Maier

Jaydee, what a pretty card! It's so elegant with that beautiful stencil! I have many fond memories of childhood Christmases! Probably the part I love the most and still do is making Christmas cookies! We used to bake lots and I still do to this day. My mom is gone so I try to keep this alive with my two girls! Love seeing your decorations too! Thanks so much for this past year of creative fun with you wonderful women! You'll still be seeing me play along for sure! Happy holidays!

Jeanne H

For many years when we both lived in CA, my former sister-in-law and I went to a performance of The Nutcracker. I remember her with fondness as somehow we've lost touch. My love of the ballet was rejuvenated yesterday as my daughter and I saw a wonderful performance here in Burnsville. Her first time seeing it, so now another tradition is created. Thanks for the opportunity for your prize, Jaydee. P.S. love your little scene on the shelf.

Doris Diggs

My memory is feeding 32 on Christmas Day with family. We did a $1 gift exchange and passed it around to see who would end up with the prized gift. Lots of love and laughter.
Beautiful card. Merry Christmas!

Jane Harrah

I grew up in Mass. so sledding on the little hill across the street was a great memory. We used cardboard and when it got wet, we got more cardboard. My folks would save it for us. Your card is lovely and that stencil is perfect. I love The Greetery! I also love your sign, Walking in A Winter Wonderland. Where did you get it? I never see anything like that!

elisa

Beautiful card 👏👏👏💐
Happy day

Marina . . . from far Africa!!!

I was so excited I forgot to put a comment. The shelf decorations look so pretty . . . I will miss the giant nutcrackers. I have an small collection and since in 2023 I plan to have a pink Christmas, my sister bought a pink nutcracker. The stencil is so pretty and you made a beautiful Christmas card!!!

Marina . . . from far Africa!!!

Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupiiiiiiiiiii!! I wish that blog candy!!! My God, so many memories!!! My beaufiful memory . . . 42 years, 11 months and 25 days ago . . . my son, Sofiane, under the Christmas tree (all dressed in yellow -- for good luck) holding a Christmas bulb. My blog candy may be sent to a US address. This shows how optimistic I am . . . ho!ho!ho! Good luck to all participating.

Linda Hultquist

As a child, we would go to my grandparents house and they were from Sweden. They would serve Swedish food such as lutefisk, sardines, meatballs, krupkrakur, Uldrika, with other food I can't remember and rice pudding for dessert. There wasn't a lot that I liked so pretty much went hungry. I had a cousin who was six months older than me and we enjoyed being together on holidays. After dinner, we were finally able to open our gifts. One Christmas I received a Revlon doll and my mom made a lot of clothes for her even a wedding dress with a veil. She came with high heels, jewelry, necklace and a pink dress with red hearts on it. I really enjoyed being with my mom's side of the family for Christmas Eve. They were a lot of fun.

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