A Partridge in a Pear Tree

It is TRULY the Christmas season - and many of you know that by the white all around you and others by the ioncredible amount of rain and wind that you are getting. Wherever you are - I wish you a Peaceful Holiday Season.
After moving across the country, and then settling into our new home in Alabama, I just haven't done ANY crafting as I have wanted to get everything all in it's place so it will be easy to find things when I do set about to craft. I think my Christmas cards will be a bit on the late side this year! :)
However, I am working on some other projects at the moment and have thought about THIS project since it was challenged on the Elizabeth Bell Challenge Blog

I LOVE her images and wondered how I was going to use Eden's 2nd Christmas (used on last month's project) for the candle. That image is a digital and it is a wee bit hard to pass tissue paper through the printer - SO, I used this image - which I have not used very much, but it is PERFECT for this time of year.
Now, putting an image on a candle is something I have NEVER even tried, but a friend of mine told me how to do it and it is QUITE easy that I think I might just do a few more of these in the future. Basically, you stamp your image on tissue paper and then color it. You can use markers, but I used my colored pencils and think that the image is just as bright as if I had used markers. Besides, I have MANY colors of pencils and not so many markers!! Then I tore the image out from the tissue paper - you want to do this for the feathered edges you get. I stamped the sentiment on a separate piece of tissue and tore it in the same way as the image. Then I placed the images on my candle - which is vanilla scented - in case you might be wondering! :) I then took a piece of wax paper and completely covered the image with it. I got out my heat gun and began heating in the same way you would do if you were embossing something. You can watch the image 'melt' into the candle - much the same as watching embossing powder go glossy. Once you have done the whole image - let it cool just a bit and then peel away the wax paper. Your image has become part of the candle and it is so AWESOME looking! I have left some room at the bottom of my candle for ribbon, or a candle ring.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing my project - which I have completed JUST in time to get it into the EB challenge for the month.

Happy Holidays
~Paula~

Busy - non-crafting!

As many of you now know - we moved out of California and bought a house in Alabama - just south of Birminghan. It is a beautiful home, however, I have been so busy with unpacking boxes and settling things in that I haven't had time to craft. I have had alot of people ask me for pictures, so I have uploaded a few of them here for you to take a peek. These pictures were taken prior to us moving in, so it has a very uncluttered (think 'unlived in') look to it - but believe me, it is getting well lived in now!
So, come along on a tour of the downstairs! When you first arrive at my home - you might get the feel of stateliness - I did when I first saw the pictures, and well - it DOES look that way in real life. It is considered a 1 1/2 story house - I understand what they mean, the upstairs is not a full upstairs - there are rooms to the left and rooms to the right, but the space in between is all open. There is a bridge that connects the two sides of the upstairs - but we aren't there yet - we have barely come in the front door. We are going to walk straight ahead and off to your right you will pass the guest bathroom (or should I call it a powder room??) I must tell you, I do NOT like the color and intend on changing that fairly soon. Paint is cheap!! :) If you need to stop in there before we continue on our tour, we will wait. :) Now, continuing on into the livingroom you will see the beautiful fireplace. It is a gas lit fireplace with a fake log. We are talking about eventually replacing the box and putting in one with a blower, that way the heat that is generated - and believe me, it DOES generate alot of heat - will blow out into the air and gas is SO much cheaper than electricity for heating. I have already decorated the mantel with my Christmas village and my snowmen stocking hangars. I also have a clock above the mantel that has snowmen on it and it plays a Christmas song every hour. I found it in a little shop southeast of us. Now, if you turn to the right, you will see a doorway that takes you into the masterbedroom suite. This picture was taken after they repainted. There was a leak in the bathroom, so they fixed that and then had to replace the carpet in the walk-in closet and repaint. I was able to select the carpet, flooring and paint color, so I went with this light lavendar for the walls and a darker for the drop down part of the tray ceiling. I didn't think the bedroom was that large when it was empty, but now that it has our furniture in it - well - it is quite spacious. I won't show you the masterbath or closet because there isn't anything real special about them - just a counter with two sinks, a tub and shower. The closet is a walk in, with wire hanging shelves on all four sides. It is quite full now with all my crafting stuff! So, back out of the room and across the livingroom to the kitchen. I LOVE my kitchen. It is not too large and not too small, just perfect. There is a 'eat-in' portion - which is actually not IN the kitchen itself but just to the north of the counter. It is a spacious area and I have placed my Precious Moments display cases there - the figurines are still not out of the boxes - maybe later this week. We took the white refrigerator out of the kitchen and replaced it with our black one. The stove is black, so it fits well with the white and black color scheme.I have already had the pleasure of cooking several wonderful meals in my new kitchen and even serving guests.Now, continuing through the kitchen - wafing with wonderful homemade scents of yummy stuff, we come to the formal diningroom. Now, until this past weekend, the table was not set up in the formal diningroom. Now it is not only set up, but it is also set for a formal dinner. We have enjoyed one meal in there already with our friends James and Lisa - who put up with us for a month at their house while we were waiting to close on our house.If you walk out of the formal diningroom, you will see that we are back in the entry way and if you turn and look back toward the livingroom, you will see the staircase to take you to the upstairs. I have garland and ribbon to decorate the banister rail - which is 16 steps from the entryway to to the top - and then the railing across overlooking both the livingroom on one side and the entry way on the other.
So, there you have it, a tour of the downstairs of my lovely new home. It still doesn't feel real to me - but I am sure it will become more so as time goes on.

Thanks for stopping by today - I hope to have some other items of a crafting sense to share with you later in the week. I REALLY need to get my Christmas cards started!!
Have a beautiful day wherever you are.
~Paula~

A little Snowmen

I LOVE snowmen! I have quite a few snowmen stamps - but this is one of my Sugar Nellie stamps. This week on the All things Sugar Nellie forum on Paper Craft Planet the challenge was to make a 'step' card. Well, here is another kind of card I have never done. There are several types out there and I really wanted to make a different style, but couldn't find the directions on how to do it. Of course, I didn't really look that hard. I had a raging headache this morning and just did something simple. I hope you like my snowman.
Thanks for visiting my little spa on this blustery sort of day. I have not been out since I took my husband to work - but planning on going out shortly so we can do the final walk through on our house.

~Paula~

A Change of Vintage!

This past week was a Vintage Week over at the 365 Card Blog and I had so much fun making vintage cards all week long. Creating beautiful vintage cards has helped pass the time while waiting for closing on our house - which will happen tomorrow!
Anyway, I want to show you the last card that I made for the week long challenge. For my last card, I decided to change my DP and use my Deck The Halls DP as I LOVE this paper and think it gives that vintage feel just as well as the Vintage Rose DP I have been using on my other vintage cards. The Vintage week started with a blog hop. We were to hop to each DT members blog and see what item they were contributing to a recipe. The first day there were five blogs to visit and the rest of the week we hopped to one blog a day getting the rest of the items to make up our recipe and then on Saturday we were to put all those items together on a card. The first two items were paper piercing and stitching (real or faux). Since all my stuff is still on a moving truck, I chose to use faux stitching. I 'stitched' two lines around two sides of my card. For the paper piercing, I pierced all around the edge of my die cut oval. Using a die cut was another one of the items on the recipe from the first day's hop. We also were told to use a button and I just happened to have this 'vintage' looking button in my items I brought with me. I was more than happy to use one of my deck the hall buttons, but this one worked out nicely I think. The last item we were given on the first day was the size of the card, which was to be a 5 x 5 card. Then we had to wait until the next day and each day after that to find out the other items required for the card. By the end of the week, we had added a hatpin, a stamped image I chose to use a new just rite stamp and colored it just a bit with silver and gold smooch. Another item on the recipe was distressing. I distressed the edges of my DP and the matting and then edged all with Early Espresso. A dimensional sticker was another requirement, but since I didn't have any, I made my own by popping my oval mat off my card and then popped the stamped image off of that. The last item was lace. How can you NOT have lace on a vintage card? I really like the way this card turned out and may even consider making a few more similar to it for Christmas cards to send. Yeah - I haven't done that yet!!
I hope you have enjoyed viewing my vintage cards this week. Later today I hope to have a couple more cards to share with you - so come back when you get a chance and visit for awhile.

The teapot is on!
~Paula~

Vintage with Lace

Old Lace - yellowed with age - so old fahioned. Right now, I am picturing in my mind a lady of the old days with a BIG hat on her head with a PUFFY sleeved dress - and decked out and ready for tea! Hmmm - that DOES sound yummy - and it WAS!! Yesterday, my husband and I went down to a tea room and had high tea. It was LOVELY. We used to take tea often when we lived in Washington state and talked of doing that while in California. Now - only in Alabama a few weeks and we have had our first spot of tea at a tea room. I am sorry - just reminiscing about old fashioned things - which is what the Vintage Blog tour over on the 365 Card Blog has done to me this week. As I anticipate moving into the home we are purchasing and the way in which I will decorate - it is hard not to think Vintage. I love old fashioned - pretty things. I really like this card - adding a bit of lace - which was the challenge for Day 271 in addition to making it vintage. It was fun to add the different layers and the floral spray - which I haven't done to much of this week with my cards.
I hope you have enjoyed the cards that I have shared with you today - I will have the final card ready soon - but there are SO many elements to add to the card - however, if you want to know what all to include on your card - you will have to check out the blog and the DT hop from the week. You REALLY don't want to miss it - and you still have time to win some fabulous prizes from my friend Gloria, who is the sponsor for the week.

Thanks for stopping by - do check back soon for my final Vintage Card.

~Paula~

Vintage Christmas

What images pop into your head when you hear those words - Vintage Christmas? Hmm, I think of old fashioned pictures of children skating on the ice. Old photos of old fashioned Santa's. Aged items basically - which is what I mentioned in my last post - Vintage is a feel of aged, antique items. As the 365 Card Blog Vintage Week continues - Day 270 brought us Vintage plus a dimensional sticker. I just happened to have these old fashioned - looking - stickers that I had purchased JUST before our move for another project. In fact, that project was for Operation Write Home and the Joann's Creativity for a Cause - they made it into the top 3 Finalists - so be sure and vote for them! Anyway, back to my card - I made it quite simple adding just a bit of lace and the ribbon and then the sticker.
I have one more card to show you from the week - and then on to the BIG FINAL card - so stick around for just a little longer.

~Paula~

More Vintage!

Day 269 continues the Vintage Week at the 365 Card Blog sponsored by my friend Gloria. Vintage is such a varied technique - it really can be anything you want - you just have to make it look aged - and what better way to make something look aged than by distressing it?? That was the challenge on Wednesday - Vintage plus distressing. My choice of paper was easy - as I am using my Vintage Rose DP for these challenges, however, I just didn't know WHAT I wanted to do with this challenge. It is easy to distress the paper and add a bit of ranger ink. I decided to use my LARGE flower - I ordered these awhile back from Wild Orchid Craft and hadn't had an opportunity to use them. I tried spraying with my Silver Foil smooch - but I don't think it comes out silver - it is more of a black and made SUCH a mess. I added some gold and called it good.
Thanks for checking back to see what else I did today - but wait - I will have more - so hang around.

~Paula~

It's A VINTAGE Week . . .

. . .over at the 365 card blog and my friend (she truly IS my friend - not just an internet friend, but a real live friend - that now lives thousands of miles away on the West Coast!) Gloria is the sponsor for this week. She is not only on the 365 Card Blog DT but also on the coveted Graphic 45 DT - so she has TONS of Graphic 45 goodies that she has shared with her teamies and now wants to share with a few bloggers. Gloria LOVES doing vintage cards - so that was the theme this week - and I am just getting caught up on all the challenges for the week. On Day 268 the theme was VINTAGE plus a stamp. Well, in my limited supply of stamping items, because my stuff is still 'on the truck', I have this 'vintage' looking tea stamp set. PERFECT for this challenge! I used my Vintage Rose DP on this card again - it is so 'vintage' looking - I think anyway - what do you think?
Well I have some other cards to show you - so stick around, or come on back in a little while when I have uploaded them here.

~Paula~

Vintage Easel Card

Yesterday was Day 266 on the 365 Card Blog and the challenge was a Sketch to launch the start of the Vintage Week. My good friend Gloria gifted the members of the DT with her excess Graphic 45 DT stash. Now, I don't have any Graphic 45 papers, but I was able to find this vintage rose paper amongst my limited stash. I had some Core'dnations cardstock that worked nicely with the vintage rose - so I cut the nesties scallop circle out of the core'dnations and then sanded it to bring the blue color forward. I then glued this piece of one of the vintage rose papers on top of it. I decided to make the card an easel card and added the sentiment to the inside of the card. I know it is hard to see the sentiment from this picture.
I am looking forward to more of the challenges that will be posted each day this week on the blog. Each DT member will be added an element to use on a card that will be revealed on Saturday -so stick around here to see how I create the card, but come back each day to see what other challenges are going on.
As always, I appreciate your comments and you stopping by to ready my musings and see my creations.
~Paula~

Double Challenge

This week has started off quite busy in the land of blog. I participated in the bloghop over at Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog over the weekend. It is their birthday and they had a fantastic bloghop with all the DT members giving away some yummy candy.I just discovered this blog through my internet friend Lorraine - who happens to be on the DT.One of the rules of the hop was creating a card using the sketch provided. What a FUN sketch, full of lot's of angles. I had fun creating my card. So, the double challenge is that I am also entering this card in the 365 Card Blog Challenge for Day 267 Which was to make a Vintage card and use a stickpin!! WELL - I love the vintage look, but don't feel that I create it that well. With limited supplies right now - since our possesions and most of my stamping supplies are still on the moving truck - I only have a few packages of paper at my disposal - however, one of them is called Vintage Rose - so I found it fitting for this challenge. Now the stickpin was a different story. I didn't have any, so went in search of some. I was only able to come up with a corsage pin, but I guess that will do. Since it is Vintage Week all week long at the 365 Card Blog, I have decided to use this paper pack to create my cards. So, come back each day to see my take on the challenge for each day.
~Paula~