Happy Birthday, MMSC34

Hello, our last week in 2009!  I trust you all had a Merry Little Christmas and as much as I like Christmas, I am just as happy to have it behind me ( no pun intended, LOL) and get back to my 'normal' routine. I already have my Christmas tree down and any decorations related to the Holiday season.  I really DO see why some go out of town skiing or on cruise during holidays, am I the only one that feels this way, I really am not a scrooge!!.  My next thing is to give my house a good cleaning which I am happy to say I have started on that yesterday, today and maybe tomorrow should do it if I do not get distracted and go off and do other things.  Like that NEVER happens.   Let me introduce my card this week, a birthday card, one can always use one of those, I like how her hat came together and her bow on her collar, something new for me.

I went with brown, metallic gold and some pinks.

The inside.  I have patterned paper here but quite pale so one can still write a birthday greeting inside. Fran from the Frantic Stamper Inc. is the sponsor of our Monthly Bonus Prize Winner. You can visit Fran at her store at the Frantic Stamper Inc.  Fran is so generous with a Mega gift package valued at over $250.00.

Other than the MMSC, I have entered this in the  Crafty Creations, #47 where they have 'no rules' this challenge so I am going to squeak this card in as my second entry.  I also found the Challenge Blog Charismacards, and this week is anything BUT Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by, have a safe and Happy News Years.  Hugs ~ Jane

Valentine's Day !!! 'A Greeting with Love'.

 

I like Valentine's Day!! Here I have a Vintage image decorated with flowers, a string of pearls, gems, a red button, brads, some glitter and machine sewing. I have entered this is the The Pixie Cottage, Challenge  6, Buttons, I added a red button on the left had side on the card front just so I could play with them this week.    Number two is at Crafty Creations, #47 where they have 'no rules' this challenge so I am going to squeak this card in.  The third challenge, at Creative Card Crew #41, has "anything goes", can't bet that so I will be joining them this challenge. Number four is over at Dutch Dare Card Challenge, DDCC #67 "Make it happen", you are to make your own embellishment.  I made the small collage that I used on the inside of my card (below).  Five brings me to Inky Impressions, #26 where  I used glitter, red and yellow and green on my card front for all that sparkle.  On number six at Polka Doodle they have a free theme for Challenge 31 where it is 'Anything you like'. Seven is over at CupCake Craft Challenge where it is "A time for Celebration", Valentine's day is a time for celebrating "LOVE".   I think that is it for this card.  It is none the worse for wear, keeping my fingers crossed for these challenges, I will need now to go and link up.

 

The card inside.  

Thank you for stopping in.  I love your visits, don't be shy, let me know what you think.   Blessings, Jane

Vintage Roses in Bloom, MMSC33

I know Christmas is just days away, I hope you are all ready.  All your baking, gift making, gift buying and wrapping, Christmas cards and cleaning and decorating and WAIT - don't forget to enjoy, celebrate and have some Merriment!!

This card is undercover, not even a Christmas card - nor a New Years card  - an ALL occasion card, ready for anything!  Fran from the Frantic Stamper Inc. is the sponsor of our Monthly Bonus Prize Winner. You can visit Fran at her store at the Frantic Stamper Inc.  Fran is so generous with a Mega gift package valued at over $250.00.

The Card Front

 

The inside.  I really TRY to finish the inside right after I complete the front of the card while I still have the right paper and supplies on my work area, it is so much easier to do it then.

I want to wish you  a Blessed and Merry Christmas, please drive safely over the Holidays.  ~ Jane

A Christmas Tradition - Chex Party Mix

I'm sharing with you one of our family's traditions, Chex party Mix.  My husband makes this every year, about 4 batches of it.  I place it in Christmas tins and we give it away to family and friends.  My husband's family did this while he was growing up and now we have inherited the tradition and how everyone now looks forward to their Christmas tin of Chex Party Mix.

The first batch is ready to go into the oven.  It is placed in a large roaster for it's baking time.

                                                   

 All that butter, ready to be melted along with the seasoning for the mix, no calories here!

 This makes alot, this covers our center kitchen island.  Once it has cooled, we put it into large containers and freeze it in our lower level freezer until it it tinned and gifted.

 

I guess this is a two-part post because today it is the tinning day, I am started to give these out so I have to have some ready to go.  I have it all in tins now and in the freezer.  I like to add a few surprises in my Chex Party Mix, although I don't think they are a surprise anymore as I do this every year, the surprise would be NOT to add them into the tin.  I add Lindt Truffles.  The red bag has the Milk Chocolate, the darker blue bag is Dark Chocolate and then I decided to try a new favor this year that they just put out called Starcciatella which has a white chocolate shell with cocoa pieces and a smooth filling.   So how many of these chocolates did I eat?   Only one (surprised?) I tried the new one, the Stracciatella white chocolate and it was good.  Ok, I knew I would like it  - but my favorite still is the red one, Milk Chocolate.

So there you go, one of our family traditions.  What are some of your family traditions?  

Holiday Treats and Cookie Bake, MMSC32

 This  is my recipe holder card, it has two front pockets and I love the paper, dressed up in gingerbread cookies.  I looked at the tutorial  at SCS on how to do a front two-pocket card, I read and re-read it and even printed it out BUT, it lost me on step 2, I kid you not!!  I went on to do my own version of it.  The front pockets turned out just fine but there is no inside of the card and I showed you the back of it, almost like a picture frame type stand, which I suppose was to be the inside of the card but frankly I like it better myself, who knew?

Our Sponsors for Midnight Madness for this Challenge are:
Fran from the Frantic Stamper Inc. is the sponsor of our Monthly Bonus Prize Winner. You can visit Fran at her store at the Frantic Stamper Inc.  Fran is so generous with a Mega gift package valued at over $250.00. We are also happy to announce that this week we have the wonderful Simon Says Stamp sponsoring us this week for a $25.00 certificate. Thank you both for your support.

The card front, the pockets are empty right now. When the card front is full they hold the two red circles which would contain your treasured recipes, they each have a ribbon attached to let you pull them out of the pockets better.

The two recipe holders are now in  the front pockets.

The back of the card, LOL.  See ~ there is no inside of this holder.

The treat holder, a recycled pail.  I used the same paper and ribbion on this as I did the card/recipe holder.

The treat pail lid, I think this is so cute!

The goodies we made at the Cookie Bake.

The whole package, the card/recipe holder, the red recipe cards, the treat pail and the goodies.

 
 I have a recipe for you, one we try and make each year called Holiday Snowballs, they were made this year also as you can see in the photos.


                                         Holiday Snowballs
1/2 Cup butter
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
1 Cup ground Walnuts or Pecans
1 Cup Flour
Powdered Sugar

Mix butter with sugar until creamy, add vanilla, flour and nuts, mixing well.  Wrap in waxed paper and chill until easy to handle.  Shape dough into one inch balls and place on cookie sheet.  Bake in oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and while still hot, roll in powdered sugar.  Place on cooling rack and when cool, roll again in the powdered sugar.   Makes 2 dozen cookies.
 
Here is what my family does for the Holidays, we have a cookie bake!!  There are rows and rows of cookies, our best guess is around 100 DOZEN cookies,  We are all worn OUT and up a few pounds!

Thank you for stopping in, feel free to help yourself to some cookies, there is more than enough for everyone!  Hope your family has some of your own favorite family recipe traditions.   Have a great week, blessings, Jane

                      

Holiday Home Tour, another tradition.

I love this kind of tradition, no work and all play on my part!!!  Let me explain this home tour.  In this town, Hudson Wisconsin, (I live in Minnesota, so just over the border) you can sign up to go on the home tour.  Normally there are about 6 homes on the tour and the Main Street merchants with very quaint, upscale shops help sponsor it and allowing the home owners to display their merchandise in their homes and the shop owners even come in and decorate these homes for them so they are really '"in their Christmas finest".  So you can either drive to all the homes or take the tour bus, we drive most of the time to the homes ourselves using the maps they supply.   The idea is to promote the town  and the Merchants and for some Holiday FUN!!  There are door prizes in the homes so our routine is to tour the homes and then do some shopping and top it off, have a very nice dinner and a few cocktails.  I was elected the driver to all the homes and the driver home so NO cocktails for me which really is why I think I ended up the driver!  It makes for a long day and FUN day too, sometimes we have stayed the night in a hotel but not this last time.  We really have alot of fun and many laughs and we are so motivated to go home and start our own holiday decorating.

The starting point is a hotel, where there is a craft show going on and some 'live music".

One of the homes on the tour, no lines here!!  We like that!

This one is a Condo off of Main Street.  There was a line here, fairly long too and this was cool because it had a spiral staircase inside AND a tube elevator.

This is the same line but I wanted to show you the mural on these building in back.

This is a picture of one of the homes bathrooms, I really don't take pictures of bathrooms BUT this is really a nice one, LOL.

This is one of the tables set in the home and most were set, the homeowners really decked out their homes, it was such a pleasure to be allowed in to the homes.   Wouldn't you love to sit down to this?

There is a range of style of home styles they have each year, some are new and some are old.  Hudson has a very historial side of town and two and chosen from the historial side of town and then the rest are more modern or newer construction.

What do you think, should I order you up a ticket for next year?

Midnight Madness Holiday Blog Hop, MMSC31

*** The Midnight Madness Christmas Blog Hop ***


Welcome to our Midnight Madness Christmas Blog Hop. We know this is a busy time of year for everyone so we are including our blog hop with our regular weekly Challenge MMSC #31. We invite you to participate in our challenge by making a card from our fabulous sketch and to be inspired by the projects on our blogs and make a matching ornament or small project. You are not required to do the project, but it would be a treat for us to see what you come up with and we would love it!!! You also do not have to do the sketch to participate in the blog hop. As an added bonus, we are going to do something a little different this time around. Each of our Design Team is offering up their card and project as a prize. WOW, a chance to own a Midnight Madness Card and design!!!

1 Blog Hop GRAND Prize Drawing
12 Design Team Featured Card with Ornament/Small Project Random Drawing
1 PRETTY PAPER Christmas Card drawing from the 12 Highlighted on Each DT Blog from the MMSC#28

You have until Tuesday, December 15, 2009 12 p.m. Midnight EST to enter your MMSC#31 in Mr. Linky at Priscilla’s Midnight Madness Blog ,as always to be eligible for the Regular Weekly Bonus Prize.

If you would like your name entered in for the MIDNIGHT MADNESS BLOG HOP PRIZES, you will have to follow the directions below……..

1. To be eligible for the Blog Hop Grand Prize, 12 Design Team Card/Project Drawing, and Pretty Paper drawing; you must leave a comment on each of the Designer’s Blogs during your journey through the Hop. Once your name has been chosen, we will check to make sure you have commented on each blog before you are notified.

2. Enter your name and the words BLOG HOP in Mr. Linky, to be eligible for the Blog Hop prizes. As an added bonus, if you do the sketch you can enter you link to your card/project and have two entry chances for the prizes.

3. In order to have a chance at winning any of the prizes, except for the Regular Weekly Bonus. you must gather a secret phrase along the Blog Hop. Each Design Team Member will have a particular word or words listed on their blog and as long as you visit them in order, you will have the secret phrase at the end. If you are picked as a Prize winner you will be contacted by email and you must email back the secret phrase WITHIN 48 HOURS to claim your prize. If there is no response within the 48 hour time frame, another winner will be chosen until all prizes are awarded. To start off, you must begin at Pricilla’s Midnight Madness Blog! If you have not started there, I suggest you go back and begin again . . . you don’t want to miss out on the Prizes! If you have arrived from Jeni's Custom Cards then you are on the correct course. If you want a chance to win you will have to follow the instruction listed above. Thank you and have fun on the Hop.


If you would like to be considered for the Christmas Blog Hop Prizes, and you DO NOT have a blog, you still can participate. You will have to follow the directions below……..

1. Leave a comment on the Midnight Madness Blog Hop comment section with your email address, first name and last name initial.
2. Link up to Mr. Linky with first name, last name initial, the words BLOG HOP and in the URL space enter this address http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/


Pretty Paper Christmas Card Picks ~~~~

              My MMSC28 card pick,Vickie Kertz,  Thank you Vicki!!


Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbon of Blue,
Wrap your presents to your darling from you,
Pretty pencils to write I love you,
Pretty paper, Pretty Ribbons of Blue.

We as paper crafters and card makers go crazy over pretty paper, pretty pencils, and pretty ribbons. Probably most of you are wishing for a special paper crafting tool or treat to be under the Christmas Tree with your name on it this year!!!! This song fits the mood and tempo of all us out there crafting away for the Christmas Holiday. For something Festive for the Season we want to feature our favorite cards from MMSC#28 to honor our Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge Players who played along with us that week. Our Pretty Paper card choices will need to do the blog hop, leave a comment at each of the Design Team Blogs, and collect a word from each of the blogs visited for the winning phrase and place their name in Mr. Linky with “blog hop” after their name at Priscilla’s Midnight Madness Blog! We will enter your name in a drawing for one winner from our 12 entries. We will email you when we verify that you have entered your name in Mr. Linky and have left a comment on each of the Design Team Blogs, you will need to email back the phrase in order to qualify for your prize. Even if your card has been chosen for the “Pretty Paper” you are still eligible for the other prizes.
   

My Winter Wonderland card.  This is a stamped image and then wet embossed in silver embossing powder and colored.  It is also a gate card as you can see by the opening as it swings open.  I also used silver embossing powder around the circles, around the image and both of the card sides.

In addition to the above card, I made for my special project, two smaller cards  and one round ornament pictured in the center that was made out of a ribbon spool.

The total "Winter Wonderland" project.  One 6 x 6 gate fold card, two smaller cards and one Ornament.

Our Midnight Madness Monthly sponsor is The Frantic Stamper.

My word for the secret phrase is "XXXX" and your next word can be found at Carol's blog Chocolate, Crafts, and bears. Oh my! Thank you for playing in our weekly challenges and for all your support each week. Everyone at Midnight Madness would like to wish you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year. We thank you for joining us in our special Christmas Blog hop and invite you to participate in the sketch challenge this week with a small project of your own. Here at Midnight Madness we are looking forward to 2010 with more exciting fun and prizes and meeting and making friends with all of our participants past, present and future. Thank you and good luck winning the prizes!!!

New item added to my Era of Vintage Store

8 Handmade Vintage Notecards, to see more details of cards, Visit my Era of Vintage shop here.

My Christmas cards - no, not really that!

I know that this may come as a SHOCK stating this from a card maker so I want you to sit down.  BUT I do not make everyone on my Christmas list a handmade card, a few YES but really it is all too much for me to even think about.  So I do a letter and a photo card each year, I mean that still is some work, right?  This year about 8 hours worth getting the photos, putting them on a flash drive, uploading them elsewhere, printing them, writing the letter, printing that, printing of mailing labels et.  Gosh!!  Phew.   As some of you write your own holiday correspondence, you can appeciate all of that.  I try to hit on some events and occurrences that happened in the passing year, and for those of you that follow me, at least regularly, you already know some of that already but some on my Christmas card list do not know I have a blog, YET!  They do now!

I tried to explain my blog(s), a place to showcase my hand made cards, surely and they do all know I make cards but it's more than that, so what is it?  A journal perhaps, a diary?  No, nothing that personal, some thoughts - Yes, more along that line.  I decided that it is my "Musings", an odd word at best.  Which really means 'a state of disorder',  random ideas and thoughts, that works for me.   I have made that decision to include those "musings', while I subscribe to mostly card makers blogs, my there are SO many other blogs out there, it is truly amazing all the topics and interests so this blog is a little bit paper and at little bit me!

"Adore" Christmas Angel, MMSC30

Hello and Welcome to Midnight Madness, today my card was an Angel that was from a bookmark, no stamped or digital image from me this week, I love to use all different types of Media, to me, that is what makes it all fun and original.  She 'the card' is loaded with bling!!  Beads, half pearls, word plate, flowers, ribbon and of course, the Angel.  Our theme this week at Midnight Madness is "with wings".

 

A close up of the Angel,  this is one heavy card!

 

A handmade custom envelope to fit a thicker card as this one is as the Angel is very 3-D.  Hope you enjoyed my card this week and the Sketch, can't wait to see what you can dream up!  Please leave a comment, I love hearing your thoughts on this.  And now for our sponsor information ~

Our December Monthly Sponsor at Midnight Madness is The Frantic Stamper.  Our weekly sponsor is Christina Bower from Sunshine's Stamps.