Love You Much Card & Tag Portfolio

Would you like to make this? I will have a class on February 7th at 7:00pm. Come and stay until you finish. Cost will be $30 and must be pre-paid by Januray 12th so I have enough time to order the product and prepare the class. I am limiting this to the first 6 that sign up and pay. Reserve your spot today!!!

You can click on the link and pay via paypal, or call me, and drop a check in the mail.

Harry Potter Socks....Tonks style

I am **** LOVING**** the colorway of this yarn! I fell in love with the colors at my LYS, and couldn't wait for all my knitted gifts to be done so I could cast on my socks. I started last night and have almost 2/3 of the first sock done!

Aren't these colors pretty!

Happy Holidays!

I have been MIA for over a week now! With Christmas preparations and then the celebration I haven't had time to blog at all. I was busy baking, knitting gifts, shopping, etc. and time just flew by! It depresses me that it is over for the most part. School is still out for another week and I have tons of things to do. The biggest one to tackle will be my stamping studio! It looks like a tornado has gone through it. I have been dreading going in there because of the chaos. I know I have to do it, but just dread it!

Had a great Christmas Eve with my parents, siblings, aunt, cousins, and nieces and nephews. Mom always does a gag gift for someone, and this year, it was to the seven of us kids. Mom has always hung our stockings on her mantle. It is amazing to see how vintage they look! Well this year, she has us all get together and handed us each our stocking. We had to open them all at the same time.

So here we all are in birth order from left to right!

Tim, Joan, Mark, Diane, Tom, Brennan and Kerri

And this is what was in each of our stockings!

Goody Goody Gum Drops!

Today was another CASE! Andrea Walford, a very talented demo, created her version of these treats but made a Christmas tree with circles that she punched. I don't have much time left to get everything done for Christmas so I took the Sizzix die cut route! I used my Gingerbread die cut!!!! I cut two dies per treat. On one, I applied some designer series paper to the back so it would show through the hearts, and then used white liquid applique for the icing. I didn't wait for it to dry, but just heat set and it puffed right up! These will be for my nieces and nephews on Christmas Eve.....

CASED Christmas Tags!

Another demo, Mercedes Weber, submitted these to SU for a contest and won. I CASED her idea and we made these at our stamp club meeting last night. Well.....not all of the club members made it! We had a wave of bad weather that came right at 7:00 when they were to arrive that made the roads slick with sleet. A few of the die hards made it though! I loved the snowman the best just cause he was the easiest. But I did change up her instructions.......Instead of punching out those little circles for the mouth and eyes in black, I put my nose on first, and then punch holes for the eyes and mouth, and punched a smaller circle in black and glued it to the back of the white.......MUCH EASIER girls!

Teenagers..........ARGH!

I am waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy behind in my Christmas decorating, baking, wrapping.......well just everything! Even getting my cards done!~ I sooo wanted to get some made this year. But the craft show I did set me back. Don't know if I will stamp any or not. I usually send a photo card to family and friends. So tonight, after Connor's basketball game, (we won! yeah Tarheels!) I asked him to go change and put on a polo shirt or something. Did I get cooperation? Did I mention he's a teenager????? So here are some of the shots I got. Just being silly and not cooperating! Well at least he matches the dog's sweater with his basketball shirt! Won't post the one's I actually picked!

By the Light of the Silvery Moon......

Friday night was the biggest full moon of 2008. I went outside to go run some errands and had to run back in to get my camera. Now mind you, my camera doesn't take the best night shots, but I did manage to capture some of it's beauty with the clouds and trees. God amazes me all the time with these glimpses of our universe. And by a show of comments on here please.........what's the next line!

ENABLER ALERT!

Gotcha didn't I!!!! I was out doing some Christmas shopping today and went into Linens & Things. They are going out of business and have things 50-70% off. I found this little gem in the kitchen section! It is made for those little coffee disks, but when my stamper eye's saw it I saw storage for my embellishments! I love the one we have from SU and was going to get it, but I found these and decided to save my money for stamps in the new catty coming soon! These were only $10 too! Maybe your Linen's & Things will have them cheaper......but they come in a box and were marked $19.99 normally. There were some in the store right across the street from me here in Ellicott City.

Now everyone run and get them before they are gone! Please excuse this horrible picture....It spins around and has four sections.

One Sock.....Two Sock.......

One sock is done! If you want to knit socks with the most wonderful yarn.....you have to use Sheila's yarn from Knits with Sticks . This yarn is so soft and yummy! Tell Sheila I sent you! You won't be disappointed! This yarn is called Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and is a red/green combo.

Skaters in a Frame

I love the Winter Post stamp set. I cannot get enough of it. I found these little silver frames in the scrapbooking aisle at Michael's. The photo isn't the best, but you get the idea!

Santa's helpers need warm feet too!

How cute are these! I just added this pair to my Etsy shop. These are soooo fun to make. What little child (or adult) wouldn't want a pair of these to keep their feet warm! Made of a superwash wool, they can be machine washed. Can be made with a red slipper and green fringe too!

Hip to be Square with Ornaments

I am participating in a holiday bizarre next Saturday and have been knitting and stamping up a storm and haven't had time to post! Plus we had Thanksgiving thrown in there too!

So here is a card using SU Chocolate Chip cardstock as the base. The ornament paper is something I picked up in a large pad at Michael's. I fell in love with the soft earthy colors of this particular sheet! I distressed around the paper with basic brown ink and used it on the ribbon as well. The background is also a piece of Shimmery White cardstock run through a Cuttlebug ornament embossing folder. The "Joy" is from Join in the Cheer Decorative strip Die run through the Big Shot. The holly is from an older Marvy punch.

Doggie Treats!

I am participating in a craft show on the 6th of Dec., and wanted to have something for the dog lovers. I used the Scallop Circle Bigz Die in my Big Shot and folded my card in half and laid it just below the top of the scallops at an angle to make a scallop card. The dog stamp is one I found at Michael's today in the bins where they have all the kids stocking stuffers.........for $1!!!!!!!! How cute is that!( yes, you can call me an enabler!)

I got the cute little dog bags from Clear Bags. The holly is an Marvy punch and I used the 1/4" Circle punch for the berries. The bag is stapled closed, and then attached to just the back of the card with Sticky Strip. I stamped the To:/From: inside the card.

Stampin' Up! will be having a sale!

I love surprises, do you????!!! Stampin' Up! will be announcing a sale next week and I am on pins and needles with anticipation! Demonstrators don't even know what the sale will be about!!! Make sure to check back next week so you'll be ready. You'll be able take part in this sale by placing orders through me or my site/shop 24/7 online! If you haven't tried online ordering yet, click the Online Ordering link below and it will take you to my Stampin' Up! site. When you get there, click on the Shop Now button. You will spend hours just searching around! Believe me! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call or email me. I am here for you!!!! Happy Stamping! http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/joanhajek/

Countdown to Christmas!

How stinkin' cute huh! I love the way this turned out. I bought the frame at Kohl's. I cleaned the glass real well and leaving it in the frame so I could really line it up, applied the small Decor Element. I then cut my cardstock and applied the vinyl numbers each square. I ran them through my Xyron to laminate them. (this way they will last longer!) I know I have small white clothes pins in my studio somewhere and have to find them.......so for now I just added a small piece of double stick tape. I cut down a sheet of Ski Slope Designer paper and put it behind the mat. I added our awesome Felt Flurries by layering them and added some Ice Rhinestone Brads attached them to the frame with Pop-Up glue dots. I used our beautiful ribbon to the back of the frame to hang it up with. I might add some Baja Breeze stamped snowflakes around the mat but haven't decided yet. I used Sticky Strip and applied it to the sides and bottom of a 6x6 page protector after cutting off the holes on the side. This will give me a pocket to put all the numbers in! Now order this stuff and make your own! (by clicking on the bold highlighted words, you can see what you need to have or order!)

Here is photo of the frame I picked up at Kohl's for $14.99

Cardinal

I just let Snowball outback to do her business and saw our local cardinal in the pine tree. I had to grab the camera real quick! Pic's aren't the best but it was like he was waiting for me to take his picture!

Nature Photos

I have always loved taking pics of landscapes and nature in general. And love photos of the sky! Just trying to capture some of God's handiwork in my lens.

So I was on the road a lot over the last two weekends and took some shots. Most

of them while moving in the car.

Fudge Bites.............Yummy!

Another Demarle at Home rep shared her recipe for Fudge Bites. A moist oatmeal bottom with a little chocolate on top. YUMMY! And the best thing is you can get 3 trays of these with the Demarle Mini Muffin Tray! They pop right out!!! I put coconut on some, walnuts on the others, and left some plain.

These make great Christmas presents! Call me or email me to get yours today!

Or you can go online at http://www.demarleathome.com/ and use my id #US00005071 and order directly online.

EDITED TO ADD RECIPE:

Many of you have asked for the recipe, so here it is. This recipe is using the Demarle product, so you will have to check your times using other pans. And instead of adding more of the oatmeal mixture to mine, I just sprinke nuts on some and coconut on others and leave some plain.

Fudgie Bites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Place Mini Muffin Pan on Perforated Baking Sheet Combine: 1cup melted butter 2 ½ cups flour 2 ½ cups brown sugar 1tsp salt 2 eggs 1 tsp soda 2 tsp vanilla 3 cups oatmeal Scoop 1 Tblsp oatmeal mixture in each mini muffin Press down with Shaper. Melt together: 1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips (2 cups) 2 Tblsp butter 1 can sweetened condensed milk 2 tsp vanilla Optional: add 1 cup nuts or 1 cup coconut. Pour 1-2 tsp chocolate mixture in each muffin cup. Place a small amount of oatmeal mixture on top of each. Bake 12 minutes. Allow to cool before popping out. ENJOY!

Blog Candy Time!

What happens when you find things in your studio that you aren't using ??? Well, I think you make them BLOG CANDY!

So here is what you can win!

But there is a CATCH! You have to take this picture that my son Connor drew and create a card with it. Then post a link to your card here in the comments, (or you can mail it to me *grin*) and then I will pick a winner from Random.org. Please be sure to leave your name and email address as well!

Deadline to leave a comment with your card's link will be 11/29 and a winner will be picked on 11/30!

Have fun!

Rudolph is poised and ready for Christmas Eve!

This is another card that was demo'd at the VA Beach regionals. I love the simplicity of this card. Mine doesn't have the stamped image that was shown, or ribbon, (since I didn't have it) and I needed these for a swap on Saturday. I added a red nose by mixing Real Red re-inker with some Crystal Effects.

The deer is from Winter Post and the sentiment is from All Holidays.