random reflections

Zoom In, Zoom Out on Three!

It's the last Wednesday, the last day of 2014, and my 53rd Zoom In, Zoom Out pairing. I've loved this project and send many thanks to Helena for hosting it this year. I'm looking forward to next year's pairings which you can read about here.

We've been in Chicago for the last four days. We celebrated Christmas with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb when we arrived, and yesterday was a day-long celebration of Caleb's third birthday. Rather than opening all his gifts from his parents and two sets of grandparents, we spaced them out over the day. He was delighted with them all.

Caleb wanted a Thomas the Train cake, and luckily a local grocery store was able to accommodate him.

Here are a few other faves from yesterday.

Caleb woke up to this great poster drawn by his dad, and balloons on the stairway and on his chair at the table.

This was one of his favorite gifts (and his grandpa's, too.) Both Sarah and Adam and Tracy and I bought track sets that work together to produce this amazing spread with three motorized cars that zip around the track, over the hills, and through the tunnel. There are endless combinations, and he and Grandpa have created at least four different variations over the last day and a half.

Another big hit was a huge collection of matchbox cars we found at B.J.s. I couldn't resist and wasn't sure Sarah would appreciate them, but she found a Superman lunch box and all 64 cars fit right in it.

Have the Happiest of New Year's and best wishes for a wonderful 2015! 

 

Card Remake

In November I was searching my Pinterest boards for a card design for my nephew's birthday card. I found one I liked (but can't find it today after combing my Pinterest boards), and this is the card that resulted.

It was just OK. I used a triangle stamp from Alt&New's "Schcahtoa" stamp set. It was bigger than I wanted, but I went with it. 

Recently, I found Mama Elephant's "Trifecta" set and there was the perfect triangle! (This is what happens when you have too many stamps.) So even though, it's too late for Mason's birthday, I did a remake, and I'm much happier with it.

Both cards use Papertrey Ink cardstock in Select White, Enchanted Evening, and Limeade Ice. The sentiment's the same as well, from the same Alt&New set, but the second time, I selectively inked it so the words sat on top of one another.

This would make a great card in lots of different color combinations. I can't remember what colors the original was--but definitel not these colors. 

 

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!

We'll be celebrating with all Tracy's family later this afternoon, and in Chicago with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb over the weekend.  We had a quiet celebration with Matt, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella earlier this week, and this is just the perfect photo to wish all of you a joyous holiday!

Zoom In, Zoom Out on the Sunset

In a bizarre twist on the weather, it was 57° here today. Tracy and I walked over to the new College Town near the University of Rochester for lunch, and really didn't need our jackets. Just an hour ago, I heard our mail carrier start up our street. She's the best mail carrier we've ever had, and we've been hoping to catch her with a small gift of thanks for the last several days. As I looked out the window, this is what I saw. So I grabbed my camera on the way out.

 

 

Fortunately for all the holiday travelers, the weather is supposed to stay warm and relatively calm through the weekend. We'll be here for Christmas, but we're headed to Chicago over the weekend.

 

You can find more ZIZO pairs on Helena's blog here.

Christmas Cards

I'm pretty sure everyone has received their Christmas cards so I'll share the three designs I made this year. Two are very similar in design, but different in content.

I certainly did not need a new Christmas/winter stamp set this year, but when I saw "Fair Isles" I knew exactly what I'd do with it. I rarely use embossing on cards that I need to mass produce, but this year I used that technique on all three cards.

This card is very similar in design, but has a more religious feel to it. These churches reminded me of the ones we saw in Santorini last year. The churches and the sentiments on this card and the one above are both from Papertrey Ink's "Holiday Home" set.

Last, but actually the first card set I made, is one with an embossed vellum tag. I've seen a lot of that on cardmaking blogs this fall, and wanted to give it a try. I could only make 12 of these since I had just six sheets of Simon Says' woodgrain cardstock. I tried one without it, and it just wasn't anywhere near as good.

The sentiment is from Papertrey's "Stylish Sentiments: Holidays" and the tag is the Tag Sale #6.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. The countdown has definitely begun! 

Christmas Crafts

While Sarah was here over Thanksgiving, we both got a little crafting done. This year in each of the pockets of Caleb's Advent calendar there's a note with an activity or a description of something she's made to decorate his room for Christmas. On three separate days, he'll be getting (or has already gotten) one of these cute yarn trees. They're simple to make: just wind the yard around the foam cone, and hot-glue the buttons on. The cones have a flat top, however, so we decided to die cut some stars from glitter paper and attach them to the top. Problem solved!

I've nicknamed my daughter The DIY Queen. Among the many tools she's acquired since this summer is a woodburning tool. I'd seen this pin on Pinterest, and was interested in giving it a try. She read that an easy way to get started with woodburning is to stamp the design and then woodburn it. The Papertrey Ink set, "Snowfall Additions," was perfect. 

I've attached some of these to gifts, and just given a couple away. I enjoyed it so much the next time I had a 50% off coupon at Michaels, I bought myself a woodburning tool set. Sarah purchased a book of projects which I'll be pouring over while we're in Chicago after Christmas.

Mr. S'Mores

My friend, Cheri, sent me this adorable die a few months ago. It's taken me awhile to get to it, and Mr. S'Mores does take a bit of time since there are so many little pieces. He is, however, totally worth it; how cute is this?

Since the pieces are so tiny, I was able to use the pile of scraps waiting to be filed into my scrap folders. Before I pieced him together, I used Copic markers on a few pieces to give a bit of added dimension.

When I finished the tag, I decided it deserved a card of its own. Not sure whether it's going to be a winter birthday card, or a Christmas thank you note.

Thanks, Cheri. I know this little guy will see some more action!

Zoom In, Zoom Out on the Christmas Tree

Here we are at Week 51 of Zoom In, Zoom Out. I was happy to see that Helena's planning to host another photography meme for 2015. This one will be a little looser, and I'm trying to decide if I want to limit myself to one specific kind of photo, or just post a pair each week. I have another two weeks to think about it.

Last year, we broke a 40+ year tradition and bought an artificial tree. I never thought I could do that, but in reality it's the only thing that makes sense since we leave right after Christmas to drive to Chicago to celebrate there. Having to dismantle the Christmas decorations in just a day is more than I want to contemplate after hosting Christmas dinner the night before. I have to admit, I love this tree. The Zoom Out photo had little white spots when I uploaded it, and it took me a minute to realize they're reflections of the lights. What you can't see in the photo, are the subtle twinkling lights that came with the tree. Unless you really look, you're not aware of them, but they add a touch of festivity to the tree.

Our tree is covered with ornaments we've collected from our travels and many that have been gifts over the years. The large one here came from the Biltmore Estate a year ago October.

Thanks to Tracy's help, our Christmas cookies are baked. We still need to frost the sugar cookies, and I have one more batch of candy to make and then we can assemble the cookie plates to be delivered this weekend. Aside from a couple gift card holders to make, the only big job left is wrapping presents. It's something I enjoy doing so I'm feeling more prepared than usual. Hope your preparations are going well.

Christmas Cards

My Christmas cards are all in the mail. Since I send so many, I usually mass produce one design. This year I did three different designs which made it more interesting. When I'm sure all the recipients have their cards, I'll post them. After I was done, I played around with another design, and made a couple of these as well which I've used for folks I also need to remember with a monetary gift.

The beautiful wreath image is from Avery Elle and I die cut the sentiment with Memory Box's Typewriter Alphabet in red foil paper. The "berries" are my favorite pearls from AMuse. Here's a better look at the foil paper and gold embossing.

We're off in a minute to stop at Matt and Betsy's to see that cute baby and wish them a Happy First Anniversary. Then we'll go to the later church service where the choir and orchestra are presenting Bach's Cantata 140. It will be wonderful, as it always is!

Happy Birthday, Dane!

My brother celebrated his birthday this week, and it was the perfect opportunity to break out a new stamp set from Papertrey Ink called "Uncorked." I knew as soon as I saw this set that it would make great birthday, congratulatory, and hostess gift cards and tags. I sent my niece a check and the card and tag ahead of time so she could buy Dane a bottle of wine for his birthday.

The card was cased from one Erin Lincoln posted during the Papertrey Ink release last month.

The three wine glasses and one of the tags were die cut from vellum. I used the Simon Says Stars Borders die along the right edge and lined it with gold paper behind. "Celebrate" is also part of the Uncorked set.

I love the sentiments that came with the set. This is just one of several great ones.

The wine bottle tag will probably get more use that anything else. Taking a bottle of wine to friends' homes is something we do all year long. Once the holiday is over, I hope to make several of these to have on hand.

I love the font they chose for the die cut words in this set. The third die cut word is "Thanks," another card I make frequently.