Great Tidings

Nativities might be a weakness for me. I may have over 35 different sets and this doesn't not include ornaments on my Christmas tree. When Stampin' Up! shares the June - December mini catalogs, I am always looking to see what religious Christmas stamp set they are including. This past year's set was calling Great Tidings. While this set didn't have the whole nativity, it did have the wisemen and I had great fun creating with it.

This may be my favorite card of this bunch, although I really like the way they all turned out. I started with Night of Navy for the card base. The next layer is Misty Moonlight. Boy, am I going to miss this color! It is schedule to retire in April. I will be stocking up a bit. I stamped the Stacked Stone on the Misty Moonlight. The wiseman was stamped with Memento ink and then colored with Misty Moonlight and Granny Apple Green blends. The circle is a die cut piece of vellum. 

Christmas Ornaments

I adore homemade Christmas ornaments. I enjoy the challenge every year to see what I can make that year. I will admit that I actually made these over a year ago. There was always something more pressing to post so these sat in the drafts for a very long time. It is time for them to see the light of day! YEAH!!

I purchased some mini grapevine wreaths from Oriental Trading. I stamped, color and die cut the cardinal and branches. I die cut extras of them too so that I could cover the back where you can see the ink bleed through the cardstock. I adhered them to the grapevine wreath with the Multi-purpose liquid glue. I'm happy to say that they are still holding quite nicely over a year later. I added a hanger to the top and a bow.

I made one of these on a Facebook Live last year. You can see that replay HERE if you desire.

Coaching Volleyball!

I was again coaching volleyball this fall! I did this with a wonderful friend named Jeanine. I wanted to make her a special gift to thank her for doing this with me. Her favorite color is orange so I used some Dusty Durango to create this purse and cards. Dusty Durango isn't available any longer but check out the great new color, Cajun Craze! I think you will LOVE this new burnt orange color!

Stamps: Lovely Letters

Ink: Baja Breeze

Cardstock: Dusty Durango, Baja Breeze, Basic Gray, Whisper White

Accessories: Basic Gray satin ribbon, Basic Gray DSP, scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, Big Shot embossing folder and die

Our team learned A LOT this season. We were coaching 5th and 6th grade girls. We taught them to serve over hand and didn't even show them how to serve underhand. We were nervous about doing this as serving is everything at this age but we wanted them to be prepared to keep playing volleyball as they get older. We didn't win many games because of this decision but we started the season with only 2 girls serving over hand and at the end every one of our 11 girls were able to succeed with an over hand serve! That's something to be proud of!

We did only win one game but it was the most exciting game to have won! At the end of the season, we played in a tournament that was based on the record for the season. Well, because we didn't win any matches, we were ranked 8 and had to play the number 1 seed of the tournament. We WON!!! They won the first game and we won the second two. It was really exciting and fun.

We had an end of the season party for the girls. We played Queen of the Court with the 7th and 8th graders and had tons of fun. I made each of the girls an ornament to hang on their tree. I like the way they turned out and they were pretty  happy with them. What do you think?

Stamps: Have a Ball

Ink: Stazon Black and Hunter Green

Accessories: Green Sharpie and ribbon

Sorry I have been missing. I'm going to work on posting more often! Feel free to email me to remind me to post again!

Shelley