Christmas Card Challenge - March - Navy Bethlehem

The June Christmas Card Challenge is Navy Bethlehem.

I chose a navy card.  I cut the Taylor Expressions Bethlehem Border die in gold card stock.  The border does not cut a bottom edge so I could leave a lot of card stock below. I aligned it on the card then I placed a left over wavy card stock from a previous project onto the border to create sand dunes. I adhered these layers to the card front.

I punched a star with the Martha Stewart Bright Star Medium punch.  I adhered it to the card front on the left with Bling Zots. I then added gold sequins across the blue sky with the same Zots.

I stamped the greeting on the white dune in royal blue ink with on of the Lil Inkers Design - Instant Camera - Christmas stamp set.

For this card I adhered the white curvy card stock to the Bethlehem Border die cut then cut both layers at once with the largest smooth circle from the Nestabilities set. I then cut a piece of vellum with the same die. I adhered the vellum behind the gold Bethlehem.

I punched the same star and adhered that on the left hand side.  I punched several more to get the small star in the center.  I glued these around the sky with the Bling Zots.   Stamped the same greeting.

Welcome to my Kitchen

We had a great time of fellowship this morning during our Welcome to my Kitchen get together.

Our numbers were down due to some ladies being away in warmer climes, some dealing with health issues and others too busy to attend.  There was 11 of us.

As you can see we had a heart theme with a glitzy table center piece.

I chose a devotion on the heart theme called "What Love Looks Like".  We all need to be reminded to be kind, gentle, and consider others before ourselves.

I made quarter sheet heart handouts with the characteristics of Love for each participant. 

The paper is by Scrap Ease - Cotton Candy.  I cut the pink hearts with one of the heart thin lits from the Sizzix set.  I printed the words onto the designer paper.

Our hostess set up a pretty table with reds and whites. She provided fruit salad, yogurt, raisin bread and cinnamon buns with a generous amount of  tea and coffee.

Valentine Cookies

I made these for my Fruit of the Spirit Bible Study which was supposed to start today but the weather had something to say about it. Woke up with blowing snow coming down so I cancelled the session for today.

Recent Photos

This is a great cup of green tea.  It does not look green but I read in a book recently that the color depends on when it is picked in the year.

This is Jasmine Dragon Pearls green tea which is hand rolled and on the pricey side.  It was a gift from a friend.

I brewed the tea for my photo shoot for my 2019 Tea Pot Calendar which will come out later this year.








This is the book on my night stand this week.  Of course, Maeve is one of my favorite authors and this book covers several incidents that I am familiar with from other books.  I don't know how she kept all the stories and characters straight.

In this book, the story is told from Clara's point of view which is  new character for me.

I am enjoying it and will be done to swap it out at Welcome to my Kitchen next week.

My bible study material is ready to go.  It is on the Fruit of the Spirit and starts next Wednesday which is Feb 14 Valentine's Day.

I am looking forward to having at least 5 ladies attending as we explore how God works in our lives to grow Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Goodness, and Self Control.

Are any of you following "This is Us" TV series?  I have watched it from the beginning and on a special Super Bowl episode we find out how Jack died.  He has been dead since the first episode but with flash backs I have come to really love this character.  He is such a good person with the best heart.   There will be a couple more episodes until it goes in hiatus till the fall.  I have convinced several friends to watching it.  I understand the first season is now on Netflicks.

Well sewing projects don't always work out the way you plan them on paper.  I did a sample of the pattern I posted here but it did not go as planned so I made some adjustments.

I now have made several sets of these and I am happy with them.  The fleece is tricky to get consistent stitching in the zigzag but I can live with it.

I am sharing with
Jann who hosts Share Your Cup #283 at Daily Cup with Mrs. Olson

Friends Sharing Tea hosted by Bernideen

Tuesday Cuppa Tea hosted by Ruth

Blog Give Away Winners - Updated

Today I am announcing the winners of my Blog Giveaway.

A couple of my give away winners did not respond so today I have selected 2 replacements.

Carol from Art & Sand

Jeanie from The Marmelade Gypsy

Margie, Jann, Carol and Jeanie, I hope to post the photo calendars into the mail tomorrow.  Keep an eye for them.  

Enjoy them all year long.

Sylvia 

 

I had 7 individuals leave comments on my Blog Giveaway - 2018 Goals post.  Thank you for visiting my blog and sharing your 2018 goals with me. 

I used a random generator to pick 4 from the 7.

That means that the winners are:

Margie from Tea in the Valley

Jann from Daily Cup with Mrs. Olson

Debbie from Debbie-Dabble Christmas

Pam from Everyday Living

I have sent emails of congrats! Looking forward to sending those calendars off soon.

Winter Games

The most famous Winter Games start this week in South Korea.  I expect there will be many throughout the world watching the games on some sort of electronic device.  There will be some actually attending the events bundled up in winter clothes at some level.
Best wishes to all the athletes participating in the games.  May all be fair, honorable and safe.

The Alberta Winter Games are being held closer to home and start next week.  For a few days athletes will compete in the northern part of the province.

From what I could see there are about 22 sports being held in outdoor and indoor venues. Some are Alpine Skiing, Badminton, Curling, Hockey and Judo.

All the best to all athletes participating in these games.




Now for something a little more familiar.  These are the ones that live at my house.  Scrabble is my favorite. 

What are your winter games?  Leave me a comment.

I'm not much for card games but my Dad has played many games in his life. He made the board that you see here.  It is well built and spins nicely so each player can easily mark his progress.  I keep the board because my Dad made it. In an earlier life I played this game weekly. Interesting how interests change.


I had to search for a deck of cards and found this set in my craft supplies.  I bought them for the art on them and not to actually play cards.  I did check and all the cards are there.

This is a very interesting deck of cards.  The information card indicates Gothic Playing Cards - each back depicting the great kings of France based on paintings from the french schools of the XIV, XV, and XVI centuries.

I have included 1 each of the 1, kings, queen and jokers in the top row, the jokers are in the left middle, the outside of the box on the middle right, the bottom left is the info card and the side of the box.

I am intrigued and will spend some time looking at the images on the cards.

I am sharing with Mosaic Monday #71 hosted by Maggie at Normandy Life.

Christmas Card Challenge - February - Red Heart

This card is for my monthly Christmas Card Challenge which is Red Heart for February.

I chose a red card and added a layer of designer paper - Bazzill Basics Paper - Holiday Style - Stitched Green.

I tied a plaid ribbon on the right hand side and trimmed the ends.

I used the Stampin Up Sweetheart Punch with red metallic paper to create the heart accents which were adhered with 3D foam tape. 

I printed the greeting and trimmed it to end under the ribbon on the right.  I used red and green to repeat the colors from the card in the greeting.

Recent Photos

I am looking for summery images with this cold weather hanging in here.

So, tea this morning was served with true blue and yellow color scheme. The tea was Mango Passion Fruit served in my Steeped Tea True Blue heart shaped tea cup and saucer.

I love how my new small tea pot works so well with my regular dishes.  A delicious piece date square from our lunch on Sunday and a trio orange slices brightened up the table.

I chose my heart shaped tea cup and saucer with the gold edges.  The gold mercury glass bottle repeats this punch of metallic gold.

I placed some bright yellow poppies in the mercury glass bottle. 

Three slices from a large navel orange on the true blue plate again provides a bright punch of color on the table.  It offers some vitamin C to ward off those unhealthy bugs floating in the air.




This was the January book for the Tea Book Club hosted by Angela at Tea with Friends.

I did not finish this book.  It is book documenting the history of Darjeeling tea so some of the pages were not very compelling to me. 

I did learn a bit about the tea and would be interested to trying it next time I hit the loose tea store.

Love the cover!

I received this large jar candle scented Pumpkin Pie from a friend many years ago.  I decided it was time to liquidate it and thought that the jar may have decorator value.  So, I set out to melt the remaining wax in the jar which took several hours.  My place smell quite nice at the beginning but it became quite strong over time.


Once the wax as fully melted I washed the jar and removed the label.  Behind the label the jar was not textured as the top and bottom so it is not as reflective as those areas.  I've decided to keep for a bit to see if I can use it.

I am working on a sewing project for pot protectors.  I have been working on this pattern for a month. 

I have finally come up with something I am happy with it so I will be cutting and sewing to see the fabric project lives up to the vision.

I will keep you posted on the final project.

Sharing with
Tuesday Cuppa Tea hosted by Ruth

Tea with Friends hosted by Bernideen

Share Your Cup hosted by Jann at Daily Cup with Mrs. Olson.

Cobalt Glass Photo Shoot

I have been thinking about my Blue and White calendar for 2019 which will feature my Blue Nordic dishes, decor items I have collected and the Cobalt Blue glass I have gathered in the last couple of years.  I was trying to figure out what to use for a background when I discovered some inspiration on my Flickr feed - Blue Dimples taken by Susanne.

I had this sheet of textured acrylic that would do the job.  Now I had to figure out how to help it stand vertically.  I have several wood blocks with perpendicular slots in them that I figured would do the job.  I have 6 of them and with a 2 tall supports behind at both ends it stood.  The sheet is 48 inches wide so plenty of space in the center to set up my display without them interfering with my photo.

I am super pleased to have solved that problem so now I can move forward with my actual 12 layouts.

Sharing with Mosaic Monday #70 hosted by Maggie at Normandy Life.
Through My Lens #130 hosted by Mersad

Card for the Engaged Couple

This is the card I for the engaged couple. 

A card base in Pretty in Pink smooth finish with a full layer of the Love Words designer paper which features Rose Red and Pretty in Pink. It was cut to leave a small border of card color.

I added a strip with the words - A happy heart across the top third which was adhesive.  Then I chose 3 little hearts in Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip and Regal Rose to create a cluster on the left hand side. 

The cards were all packaged up in a clear 6x6 inch box with a generous amount of white tissue paper.

I wish them years of happiness.

Card Gift Set - Bridal Shower

I made a set of cards for the bride to be as the shower is this week. They will make great thank you cards.

I chose a Stampin Up simply scrappin' kit named Love Sparkles which had the right theme for this set.  The colors in the set are Whisper White, So Saffron, Regal Rose and Chocolate Chip.  The kit had the card stock, the designer paper and the embellishments so making 16 cards took about 1.5 hours. Excellent!

I made 4 cards in each color.  I chose this Regal Rose Love Words designer paper and cut it to 5.5 x 3 inches.  I adhered it to the right side of the card leaving a small border of card stock color.  I added a strip embellishment which is adhesive and well as a Pretty in Pink heart die cut.

 I followed a sketch from a card challenge at Fab Friday.



Fab Friday mostly features Stampin Up products offers regular card challenges.

This is the sketch FabFri129 for this week. 



This kit features textured card stock, adhesive die cut embellishments, and various adhesive strips. With most of the kit used in these cards it means a bit more stuff out the door.

On the Chocolate Chip one I used the same Regal Rose Love Words designer paper and added a Pretty in Pink zigzag strip with a words heart.

On the Regal Rose one again the same Love Words DSP with a pretty polka dot border and circle heart die cut.

On the So Saffron cards I chose the striped designer paper with a narrow border in Chocolate Chip with a Regal Rose heart die cut.

Tea Cards - Custom Order

This tea cup appeared in my 2018 Nice Cuppa 4x6 photo calendar.  This photo of the tea cup with the matching bowl was in the first round of photos taken for the calendar.

The friend who owns this china requested a set of cards made with the image.  I chose a bright warm pink card which worked well with the flower in the bowl.  I used a very pale green card stock  with a Pink Passion greeting.   I printed the greeting then ripped the top and bottom edges.

The 3.75 x 3.75 inch photo and the greeting were adhered to the card front with double sided tape.

The greeting and the insert was customized for each recipient.  I made 7 of these.

The same warm bright pink card stock was used for these. 

I used a 3.5 x 5 inch photo for these where I trimmed a .25 inch from the top of the photo.  It was adhered to the card front with double sided tape leaving a generous border.

I made 3 of these - one with a customized sentiment and 2 with a blank insert which will allow it to be used for any occasion.

She was very happy with the set of cards.

Sharing with Pink Saturday.

Winter White Tea

The table was fitted with a cut lace table runner in white cotton.  It has such lovely texture and pattern. I love that you can see the pine table through the cut work which provides a bit of contrast.

I included on the table a few white glass ornaments from my collection.  I chose a couple white pinecones. These live in a box in my photo shoot props as I don't want to dig out the Christmas decorations when I need a bit of this decor.  I chose a heart since we are nearing Valentine's Day.

For a bit of sparkle I added a crystal votive holder which was a gift from my sister years ago.

I added a flameless tea light as I almost never use real candles anymore.  It provides a bit of warm light to the tablescape.


These sour cream biscuits are seasoned with steak spice.  A nice little snack with a bit of butter.

The economy of loose tea is that generally you can steep it at least a couple of times.  That means I need a process to be manage the number of steeps.

I use Steep Markers on my teapots to remind me how many times I have steeped this batch of tea.  When using infusers or tea bags I set my timer to pull it once when it rings so that it can be steeped again. To go with the winter theme I selected a polar bear charm with blue and white beads.
 
I added some plain yogurt with a few frozen blueberries.
It is held in a cute white fluted ceramic bowl.



I used my fluted porcelain tea mug in white for my Masala Chai Tea.  This has been a staple tea for me for a few years. 










This is made locally by the The Chai Wallahs and sold in several locations in the central area of the province.  I would highly recommend this tea.



Here's the whole picture of the tablescape.  I have used my large white porcelain tea pot which pours well and works well with this theme.

I am sharing with

Share Your Cup #281 hosted by Jann at Daily Cup with Mrs. Olson.

Bernideen's Friends Sharing Tea

Tuesday Cuppa Tea hosted by Ruth

Don't forget my Blog Challenge by leaving a comment on my featured post.  I have posted to my Flickr account as a challenge for Winter White.