Upcoming classes - monthly card class and new technique classes!

Hope you had a great holiday and are ready to start a new year!  I have several classes scheduled and information on them is below, so you can sign up for them to reserve your spot.  In addition to my monthly card classes where you make 3 cards with envelopes, there will be 3 new classes that will take your crafting technique skills to the next level – Technique Classes.  All Stampin Up supplies provided - Includes monthly cardmaking classes and new technique classes!! 

Jan. 20 – Technique Class #1 – Blender Pens  (Sunday at 4 – 6 pm) $20, or all 3 techniques classes for $55 if you sign up for them by the first class – get a free inkpad!

Feb. 10, 11 – Monthly Card Class  (Sun at 4 – 6 pm and Mon at 11 – 1 pm)  $10 or $12 for kit with stamped images.

Feb. 17 – Technique Class #2 – Bowmaking  (Sunday at 4 – 6 pm)  $20

Mar. 10, 11 – Monthly Card Class  (Sun at 4 – 6 pm and Mon at 11 – 1 pm)  $10 or $12 for kit with stamped images.

Mar. 17 – Technique Class #2 – Using a Brayer (Sunday at 4 – 6 pm)  $20

 In each of these technique classes you will receive your own technique tool to use and keep, learn how to use it, receive a handout with instructions to take home with you, and make a special project and 2 other cards. The first class will be on the blender pen, which is a dual tip marker that is filled with clear blending fluid. You will learn to use it with markers, inkpads, chalks/pastels, and watercolor pencils/crayons.  The special project that you will make, along with 2 cards and your own samples, is a stamped stand-up tile coaster.

The second technique class will be on using a bowmaking tool.  You will learn how to use this bowmaking tool to make fast, easy, and perfect bows in different sizes.  In addition to receiving your own bowmaking tool to keep, you will receive instructions to take home and make your own samples of the different bows.  The special project that you will make, along with 2 cards and your own bow samples, is a stamped muslim bag with the Fabulous You high-heel stamp that you can put your bow samples into. 

 

 

 

The third technique class will be on using a Stampin’ Up brayer.  You will learn how to use the brayer to seamlessly blend colors on your cards, and receive your own brayer and a set of instructions to take home.  The special project that you will make, along with 2 cards and your own set of samples, is a journal/mini-book.  If you already have your own brayer, you can order another item from the Stampin’ Up catalogs of equal value, and bring and use your own brayer.

The special technique classes are $20 each and prepayment is required so I can purchase your projects in advance. There is a special price offered for all 3 technique classes if you sign up for them by the first one on January 20 - $55 for all 3 and also receive a free inkpad!

Stamping Clubs now forming - first one to start in February - get FREE Stampin Up items!

Sign up for my special monthly newsletters too! 

If you want it ALL, join Stampin Up as one of my demonstrators!!

A couple more Christmas presents for dog lovers

 Here are a couple more Christmas gifts I made for our furbaby's dog agility instructors - you can see the little dog touches I added to personalize them for dog lovers!  

First is a block picture frame...

 I stamped and watercolored 2 pictures of a little boy with his dog; then popped them up on top of each other. Thanks to my hubby who helped me with the fussy cutting!

Here is a 2013 calendar that I put a piece of dog designer scrapbooking paper into one of the sections.  I also used a dog paw print clip to hold the months together.

 

Of course I had to have  doggy Christmas decorations, and even Christmas decorations for our furbabies' cages!

 

I'm sure I'm not the only one who puts out Christmas towels and paper towels with Christmas designs on them!

And we got our Aflac ducks for 2012 that we get every year as well - a pair of the little ones and one big one... A F L A C !

 Hope you had an awesomely great Christmas!!

Merry Christmas - a Christmas Glass Block with lights

M E R R Y   C H R I S T M A S !  !

 I made a lighted Christmas glass block as a gift for my secret Santa gift this year - I loved how it turned out and especially how pretty it was when the lights inside were plugged in!  The crumbcake tulle from Stampin Up's holiday catalog was wrapped around the ends of the block and tied into a bow on top and the pleated satin ribbon around the pictures on both sides is a retired Stampin Up item, as well as the little tinsel-type bow.  You can still get the tulle ribbon as the holiday catalog doesn't end until Jan. 2nd!

 

The first Christmas Tree lit with electrical lights was in 1882. Edward H Johnson, an associate of inventor Thomas Edison, was Vice-President of the Edison Electric Light Company, which is now known as Con Edison. Johnson had bulbs the size of walnuts, hand wired, in red, blue and white specially made for him. They were initially called Christmas Tree Lamps! The tree was in his private home on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Most newspapers ignored this phenomenon considering it a marketing ploy. The story was published in a Detroit newspaper which dubbed him as the “Father of Electric Christmas Lights.” By 1900, businesses started stringing lights in their windows. For the average person, this was still an expensive decoration. Up until 1930, candles were still used in most homes, and then lights started becoming the majority replacement in most homes.

In 1895, President Grover Cleveland proudly displayed the first electrically lit tree in the White House. It was a huge tree featuring more than 100 multicolored lights. The first commercially manufactured Christmas tree lamps were produced by General Electric Co of Harrison, NJ. They were strings of multiples 8 sockets and each socket took a miniature two-candela carbon-filament lamp. From that point on electrically illuminated Christmas trees, but only indoors, grew with mounting enthusiasm in the United States and elsewhere.

The cube I made has a string of 50 lights inside it along with a silver and gold glittery garland.

 

I used 2 Thomas Kinkade pictures on the large flat sides of the cube so it is reversible!  The Stampin Up red sticky tape worked great to adhere everything to the glass.

 The other 2 white ribbons used were from another craft store - one of them is a wired ribbon so it can be puffed up into a beautiful bow that stands up nicely.

I just bought some purple mini-lights on sale so I can make up one of these glass blocks for myself!

One popular tradition of Christmas is singing Christmas carols. These traditions have their origins in the past well before the terminology “Christmas Carols” was actualized. Most of the popular carols were written in the 19^th century and were sung from house to house near the Christmas season. The Church adopted this tradition in the 1820’s, giving these songs a greater sense of reverence. Hence the term “Christmas Carols” was born.

Popular Christmas Carols, their author, and the year they were written –

Away in the Manger – James Murray – 1885

Deck the Hall’s – John Perry Ddall – 1784

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – author unknown – most likely written in the 1700’s

Hark the Herald Angels Sing – Felix Mendelssohn – 1840

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day – Henry Longfellow – 1863

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear – Edmund Sears – 1849

Jingle Bells – James Pierpont – 1857

Joy to the World – Isaac Watts – 1719

Messiah – George Frideric Handel - 1741

O Christmas Tree – Ernst Anschutz – 1824

O Come All Ye Faithful – John Wade et al – 1200’s

O Come, O Come Emanuel – John Mason Neale – mid 1800’s

O Holy Night – Adolphe Adam – 1847

O Little Town of Bethlehem – Phillips Brooks – 1865

Silent Night – Joseph Mohr – 1816

The First Noel – Davies Gilbert – 1700’s

Twelve Days of Christmas – author unknown – 1500’s

We Wish you a Merry Christmas – author unknown – 1500’s