CSL gifts Part II

Here are some more of our great exchange gifts from our party -

Here is Darlene modeling her beautiful scarf from Delores.

And Delores with her decorated card box from Diane.

And Diane with her lovely apothecary jar from Kathy S.

 Tomorrow - a few more :)   ~Maureen

Crazy Stamping Lady gifts....

Over the next several days I'll be sharing all of the wonderful gifts the CSLs made for our gift exchange at our Christmas Party last weekend.  These are amazing - enjoy!!!

This is Ana's gift from Annette - Ana needed to leave early, so didn't get in the picture.  It is a lovely cinnamon stick candle and a great little NOEL banner.

Here is Anita with the handcrafted Christmas box from Maureen S.  Inside -

This beautiful bracelet!

Here is Annette with her lovely scarf from Ana.  The exchange was anonymous, but Annette and Ana ended up getting each other's gifts :)

Stop back tomorrow for some more ~Maureen

My WONDERFUL family....

We just had our family pictures taken again for the holidays - this has become an annual tradition and I LOVE IT!!  It can be a little chaotic with all the kiddos, but having the pictures makes me sooooo happy.  After pictures we all go out to dinner together and then home.  Here is the entire group.

Zamarah, Jenee, Paisley, Aaron, Heidi, Paul, Kamili, Makai, Prince, Maureen and Zavian

And here are six of my greatest blessings on this earth!  Talk about making me happy - just looking at this makes me smile.

Prince, Kamili, Zamarah, Zavian, Makai and Paisley

Come back tomorrow to see the wonderful Secret Sister and exchange gifts from our CSL Christmas party.  ~Maureen

Rudolph Group Project

So at our Holiday Party last weekend we made this adorable little Rudolph using punches and our Top Note die - how cute is that!!  I pretty much CASE'd the reindeer from Kristy Brown but I didn't have the die she used for the antlers.  Then I remembered seeing our Oak Leaf die cut in half somewhere and used as antlers - so that's what I did and instant Rudolph :)  I actually cut two oak leaves, as they are not perfectly symmetrical and then cut them both in half and used the same sides on the deer and kept the others for another deer.  The muzzle with the nose taped to it; and the eyelids are popped up on dimensionals - and his nose of course is our SU glitter paper. You could sponge him a bit for even more dimension.

Here is the template with the different punches we used to create this little cutie -

It's hard to see the 2 white large ovals but they are there; and the writing under the oak leaf is in glare - but I explained that above in this post.  Then we took a strip of cardstock 10 3/4" x 2 3/4" and scored it horizontally at 4" and 6 3/4" and then vertically at 1/2" and 2 1/4" to allow a 1/2" on the sides to attach tape.  Notch the little triangles as shown to help it fold better.  Then this was all just folded (see picture below) and then taped to the top note die cut-outs.  I placed it inside of the little dotted line on the top note, and then cut a little off the middle peak of the top note die on the bottom, so the box would sit flat.

And another view of our finished product.

I wish I would have taken a picture of everyone's, as when I walked around the room they all had their own personalities.  Some had crooked smiles, some had their antlers tilted more to the side, some left the eyelids off and had wide open eyes - but all soooooo cute and easy.  Hope you enjoyed!  ~Maureen

Downline Christmas Party!!!

Last Saturday was our Downline Christmas party for my Crazy Stamping Ladies - it was a great day with a group of wonderful friends.  We started with recognitions and awards, then did a small project, had an amazing potluck lunch, played a game, and did a gift exchange.  The setting was perfect, as my downline Lois hosted us at her Club House.  Even the rain and drizzle outside didn't dampen our spirits.  Just look at all this yummy food!!

And here are my ladies - group 1 -

 and group 2 -

and to think that not even half of the CSL's could make it.  Check back tomorrow for the cute little project that we made and then over the next several days I'll be sharing all the wonderful gifts from the gift exchange.  ~Maureen

Quick Easy Mexican Shredded Chicken

Just wanted to share a quick and easy crockpot recipe that is a go to for me on busy weeks.  In the morning before I leave for work I dump a 2 1/2 - 3 pound bag of frozen chicken breasts or tenders into my crockpot - then pour two jars of salsa on top - what ever kind you like - medium size jars.  No exact measurements.  I had accidentally picked up the "HOT" jar of Salsa Ranchero - so this time I mixed it with a mild Salsa Verde and it turned out great - but usually I just use two jars of medium salsa and it has a nice kick, but is not hot.  I put it cooking on low all day while I'm gone - 8-10 hours. 

When I get home I take two forks and shred the meat right in the crockpot and stir it up with the liquid and then we roll it up in a flour tortilla burrito style.  Top with shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, sour cream, black olives, avocado, more salsa - whatever toppings you like on your tacos/burritos.  It is soooo easy, soooo yummy and we freeze half to have a week later again.  Enjoy!! If you try it leave me a comment on what you think.  ~Maureen

Gingerbread House Decorating Day!!

So those of you who are facebook friends know this past Sunday was our annual Graham Cracker Gingerbread House decorating day.  This is such a fun tradition with the grandkids - I look forward to it every year.  So here's the table set with fun decorating stuff -

and of course the houses :) If you want to see how we made the little houses - there are pictures and directions HERE.

Let the decorating begin - 

Makai, Heidi, Zavian and Prince

Prince, Jenee and Zamarah

Kamili and Paisley

And here are the proud creators and their final creations -

PAISLEY

PRINCE

ZAMARAH

KAMILI

MAKAI

ZAVIAN

And my girls also had to get in on the action -

JENEE

HEIDI

Then each year we take a picture of the kids with Gramma - we snapped about 15 pictures - which all ended up being craziness - here are just a couple of them -

Crazy smiles on some of those kids and I wasn't expecting the rabbit ears!!

More crazy looks - if I could photoshop I could probably come up with one great picture - but this definitely shows personalities!!

The rest of the day was great - spent some time doing Wii dance while the Turkey Dumpling 

Soup finished - then all sat down to a great lunch!  The kids especially love the dumplings - which were my Mom's (GRAMMA O's) recipe and one of my favorites.  So easy I'll share here - first make your soup - chicken stock, turkey, carrots, celery, peas, potatoes - whatever veggies you want, season with pepper.  Cook till all veggies are tender. In a bowl mix 1/2 stick melted butter with 1 cup flour and 1 egg, pinch of salt, 1/2 t black pepper. Stir till mixed will lose it's stickiness. (You can double or triple this if you want more dumplings)  Bring soup to a boil, break off walnut sized pieces and drop into boiling soup - cook at least 10 minutes - I like to cook mine longer - about 1/2 hour so they really get the flavor of the stock.  TIP - if you soup is already salty - leave the salt out of the dumplings - it will pick up enough from the soup. Stop back soon - and leave a comment on a favorite Holiday Tradition you have!! ~Maureen

Thanksgiving fun!

So our Thanksgiving was wonderful - Heidi has us all over to her home (I think there were 23 or 24 of us all together).  It was a wonderful day of good company and great food - and believe it or not I did not take one picture.  Don't know how that happened.  But Heidi sent adorable favors home with all of us, so I did take pictures at home - here they are they were cans decorated in a fall theme use the Wonderfall set and our leaf die -

 and filled with pumpkin spice puppy chow - sooooo yummy!!!  You can see more of her creative work at www.stampinking@blogspot.com.

She also had these beautiful floral arrangements on each of the tables and sent this one home with me to enjoy!! Thanks honey - for everything - the day was perfect!

Hopefully I'll do better with Christmas pictures :)
Love, Maureen

Faux Torn Edge Card

Today I want to share the beautiful Christmas card we made with the torn edge technique.  We used it a little differently here then we did on the technique card I showed yesterday.  First we stamped "Believe" from the "Snowflake Soiree" set with Night of Navy at the bottom right, for placement.  For this card we placed two paper torn masks facing each other on the card about 2 inches apart.  Then sponged in from the masks on both sides with Not Quite Navy ink. 

After we were done sponging, but while the masks were still on we stamped the littlest snowflake from the same set in Night of Navy randomly along the sponged strips, then removed the masks - this leaves a ribbon of color with snowflakes looking like they are falling through it.

We added SU gems to any snowflakes that had a complete center showing and Voila!  Beautiful, quick, one layer Christmas card.  Hope you like it!!

Thanks for stopping by today!!  ~Maureen

Faux Torn Edge Technique

Each month the members of my current club learn a new technique - this month it was the faux torn edge.  We do a technique card to put in our binders and then have them to refer to whenever we're in the card making mood (which is just about all the time for me :). 

So for our card this month we used the technique to make the snow drifts on the picture.  First we placed the the mask on the lower drift and sponged.  Then placed another mask for the upper drift and sponged.  Then without lifting the mask we stamped the tree from "Lovely as a Tree" several times (without re-inking to get the different shades) on the upper level, removed the top mask and repeated with the second mask on, then removed that mask and stamped the last tree to the left.  It looks like different levels of snow drifts with trees at each level - how cool is that.  Stop back tomorrow to see the card we made using this technique in a different way.  Thanks, Maureen