Edwin Frames and Christmas at my Mom's

I've been MIA these past few weeks because we were visiting my mom in WA for the Christmas holiday, so I haven't been able to post anything. Where did the end of the year go? I still can't believe it's 2011 already. Let me tell ya, that last week before Christmas was a whirlwind for me. I was trying to finish up gifts for Isaiah's teachers and for the family. We have 4 family members with Dec. birthdays (including mine) and 3 friends. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! My husband always jokes about how I'm a huge procrastinator. But for some reason, my creative juices don't start flowing until I'm under pressure, LOL!

These were the last of the frames I made for Isaiah's teachers featuring Heartbreaker Edwin and Santa's Helper Edwin (you can read details on the frames, papers, flowers, etc. on the below posts....I used the same stuff). The flowers and poinsettias are from Prima and Recollections.

I also found an awesome tutorial for Fuzzy Sock Cupcakes here, so I made some to include with the frames for the teachers.

For Isaiah's classmates, I made Snowman Soup. The labels and ingredients for the snowman soup came from here. I soooooo wish I had the mini Snowy image from Magnolia....he would have been really cute on these packages! Next year though, he'll be on there!! I did include 2 mini candycanes in the "soup" mix, but you can't see them because they are on the backside of the package. My favorite find of the season was french vanilla snowman marshmallows...Yum!

Here are a few pictures of my mom's house. Her favorite holiday is Christmas...if you couldn't tell, haha. I'm always amazed at how she arranges all her decorations on her two trees and throughout the rooms of the house. Every year when I go home, I find she's added more to her collection. It always makes me smile to walk through her door during the holidays. The biggest bonus every year though is seeing my son's eyes light up....it's priceless. He gets so excited!

Santa in Entryway:

Staircase (at the top of the staircase is the snowman pictured above):

Carolers on the left side of formal living room:

Formal Living Room:

Christmas Tree in Family Room:

If you think the inside of her house is amazing, you should see the pics of her backyard that she landscaped with my dad's help. She designed it all and still maintains it all by herself (and she's in her 60s). I wish I had her green thumb. I can barely keep one plant alive....and let's not even talk about my flower beds, LOL!

I hope you had a great Christmas and I wish you all a fabulous and blessed new year!!

Love,
Rosemary :)

Elisabeth Bell's BIGGEST DECEMBER BLOG CANDY!

Have you ever seen a stamp and just fell in love? I have those moments all the time (my husband would definitely agree and probably say too many times, LOL!). Right now, I'm really in love with the images from Elisabeth Bell. If you have never seen an Elisabeth Bell image, then you need to go to her blog right now....yes, I said right now and check them out. They are sooooo adorable and of course, I want them all!

I saw on Elisabeth's blog and facebook page that she has this AWESOME blog candy give-away where the winner will win 38 stamps (that's not a misprint folks....38 stamps!!). I'm in total shock!! So I spent all day working on my project (in between doing house chores and getting ready for Christmas). I just couldn't pass up this wonderful opportunity. My husband is like....what are you doing....do you have time for this? Well, if it helps me win 38 stamps......YES!!

I decided to make a frame for my mom. I needed a Christmas image and went to Elisabeth's blog to buy a digital image since I was on a time crunch. I decided to use the following image called Eden's First Christmas which you can purchase here. I just love the child-like wonder and innocence I feel when I look at her. It's how my 4-year-old son looks at our tree and ornaments.

I colored Eden with Copics and Prismacolor markers. I used Stickles all over the place....on the snowflakes on her pajamas, on her socks, on the holly leaves in her hair, on the ribbon in the tree and on the presents. I also used CTMH Liquid Glass on the ornament and lights, teddy bear eyes and nose, and on the berries in her hair. Some of you may be asking....how did you get the stickles and liquid glass in the small, tight areas? I used the pointy end of a bamboo skewer!

Her pajamas were inspired by some cute red glittery snowflake paper I found in the MME Wonderful Winter paper pack. I used the paper in two of the corners of this frame.

Most of the paper is from The Paper Studio. Some came from my stash. On the inside of the frame I embossed a green sheet of paper with Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls and then sanded it to reveal some of the white core. The wood letters came from Walmart. I covered them with several coats of Tulip Gold Glitter Dimensional Fabric Paint.

Here's a close-up of the Poinsettias:

On the large middle poinsettias, I used a Marianne Design poinsettia die (LR0122) available here to make the two large bottom leaves. The rest of the poinsettia and leaves are from Prima. I added gold stickles to the edges and then buttons to the middle.

Here are some more pictures of my frame:

I hope you enjoyed my frame! You still have time to join in on this blog candy. It ends Friday, December 24th at 8pm, Arizona time.

Thanks for looking and I hope you have a blessed Christmas and New Year!

Love,
Rosemary

Tilda Word Frames

Yesterday (Dec. 14th) was my bday, so my hubby and 4-year-old son took me out to dinner (the big party with the family is this Saturday). December is a crazy month for us. My husband's bday was Dec. 1st. His two brothers have bdays this month along with several friends. And then there's Christmas! YIKES!! I told the hubbie, we can't have anymore friends with December birthdays, LOL!

After dinner, my husband played with our son so I could finish up some projects. My son, Isaiah, has his first Preschool Christmas program on Friday, followed by a Christmas Party. Friday is also the last day of school so I'm on a time crunch to finish up his teachers' gifts.

I saw on the Close To My Heart bulletin board some awesome frame ideas by Beckie Lehman. I knew immediately I wanted to do something similar for his teachers' gifts. I found these cheap, cheap dollar frames from Michaels last year and bought several because I knew I would use them eventually. They are unfinished, wood frames with no glass in the center. I checked this year and it looks like they still carry them, however they've gone up in price to $1.50 (still can't beat that deal!).

I'm also making a few other things to go in the teachers' bags that I'll post later....along with Snowman Soup packets for his 20 classmates!

Here are the pics of my two Word Frames:

Here is the first frame using Gift Tilda:

The flowers are made from silk ribbon. I cut the silk ribbon into different sized circles and then held the edges next to a candle flame to melt them. If you do a search for burnt edge silk flowers, you'll come across a bunch of tutorials. Then I glued each circle in the middle with Fabri-Tac and topped it with a button.

The word JOY is made from 1.25" wood letters I found at Walmart made by Plaid. I covered them with two coats of Gold Tulip Glitter Dimensional Fabric Paint. The green paper (Paper Studio) behind the word Joy is embossed with Cuttlebug D'vine Swirl. I then took CTMH White Daisy ink and rubbed it across the top to bring out the embossing.

I colored Tilda with Copics and Prismacolor Markers. All of my shading on her face and clothes was done with chalk. I then added Star Dust Stickles to parts of her dress, on her bows, and on some of the presents.

Here's my second frame using Violin Tilda:

It's hard to tell from the photos, but I added gold stickles to her wings and the violin bow. I also added Star Dust Stickles to the white areas of her dress. I then added CTMH Liquid Glass to her violin and shoes to make them shiny (didn't show up very well in the photos).

I'm entering the following challenges:

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Sparkle & Shine
Creative Inspirations Challenge - Anything Goes Christmas
Magnolia-licious Highlites - Letter or Word Project using Magnolia Stamps
Stamp with Fun - Christmas

Well, that's all for tonight folks. I'm ready to go hit the sack....it's been a long day! I still can't believe Christmas is next week!! I had huge plans this year to make my own Christmas cards and lots of homemade projects, but I never seemed to find the time to get it all done. So, unfortunately, it looks like I'll be buying cards again this year. My hope is to be more involved in challenges next year and get a head start on Christmas cards so I'm not running around like a chicken with it's head cut off in December!

Thank you for taking the time to visit me! It really means a lot!!

Rosemary :)