It's Christmas Day!

Yep... this is the best one we got. hahaha He was not 'feelin' Santa this year!

Merry Christmas from my house to YOURS!

Gonna take a break from posting for a couple days! See you all soon! Liek on Monday or sometime!

It's Christmas Eve!!!!!

It's finally here!! YAY! Tomorrow is Christmas!!! It's probably a little too late for any last minute gift ideas- you had just better be ready! This is something you can make for someone but I don't know if I'd necessarily give it as a gift. Its an idea of how you can store your Christmas cards after you are done displaying them for the season.. Be sure to put the year on the back somewhere. If you would like instructions just email tonyamccrary@myctmh.com or tonyamcc@twlakes.net You can also make these any size. I made this one large so it would fit even the biggest cards! You can also make them smaller like 5 3/4 x 4 1/2 so you can decorate it and put some handmade cards inside and give as a gift! :-)

You can set your ties anyway you want. You can attach ribbon to front and back so you can tie together. You can set eyelets and tie in front or brads and hemp and tie like an interoffice envelope!

Make your accordions as thick as you want!

2 Days until Christmas!

In the kitchen ... in the kitchen... in the kitchen.... Tis the holidays after all! So my kitchen counter is filled with all kinds of baking stuff! One of my most favorite desserts is Orange Juice cake. Photos below! My husband asked me to make some this year for his friends. Plus we'll be giving some to our neighbors as well! So here are three I made tonight! I'll be cooking b-fast for his work friends at 7am and then off to make more cake!

Recipe below- I made 3 in like an hour and half- too easy!

Orange juice cake:

yellow cake mix

vanilla pudding mix (small box)

4 eggs

1 cup OJ

1 cup oil

Mix together, pour in bundt pan, bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Glaze:

1 cup OJ

1 stick butter

3/4 cup sugar

Bring to boil- stir for 3 minutes. Pour over hot cake!

Moistest cake you've ever had! YUM-O

See a cute gift idea below!

3 more days! ONLY THREE MORE DAYS

Looking for some last minute gfts for those close to you- like grandparents- siblings- spouses?! Want to do something with pictures, but not just another frame?! WELL HERE YA GO! This is a lil squashbook.. again I cannot take credit for this lil book. It's been around CTMH for a while and I have no idea who posted it first. I had these directions saved in my documents and thought how cool to make! I have totally used our Chjristmas papers to death SO here is a beautiful winter paper called Aspen. It was last years paper but I still use it alot!

This is a perfect gift to give someone to put out just during winter months - use all winter pictures. Doesnt have to be recent photos.. The total size of this book is 6.5 x 6.5 so its perfect for a coffee table. I may use this one to put some old photos of winter playing of my husband and I- all the way back to when we were dating = > to current with our sons first snow last year! :-) We can sit it out with our Christmas decor every year! How fun! (I dont think he checks my blog! ooops!) Let me know if you want the directions! So easy - I made this whole thing in less than an hour.

Christmas is just too busy- I cant wait to start having time to create my OWN projects!

4 more days!

So hopefully you have all of your shopping done and hopefully even mostly wrapped! However if not - maybe you can make your own wrapping paper! Okay - so its probably not realistic to make ALL your paper BUT you pick out that one or two more special gifts and wrap those with your own stamped paper... This is a smaller gift so I just used a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock. You can get a roll of plain white butcher paper almost anywhere now.. craft store, school supply stores, etc... I just random stamped this but you could use some pretty background stamp and stamp all over adn highlight with a color on top of a coordinating stamp! FUN!

A Christmas Story....................

Last night we went to see A Christmas Story THE PLAY! It was great. Super funny, super actors, and super entertaining! This is a picture of my husband holding the actual "official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model BB rifle with a compass in the stock" that they used to make the movie! We all agreed that such an item should be in the Smithsonian! haha! Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Traditions

As Christmas is almost here and everyone is in full swing of their Christmas traditions I thought I would share a few of mine and my family's.... The below picture is of the group we have over every year from our church (plus my sis and brother n law this year) for a small Christmas party. This is our 3rd or 4th year now and I look forward to it every year! Lots of food, laughs, and games! I thought this year's funniest game was when the couples had to look at each other and say "Merry Christmas, I love you" for one minute without laughing! Hilarious! Another tradition is taking photos for the Christmas card! I'm lucky enough to have a sister who is a professional photographer so she comes here to get Will's picture in front of our tree!

Like alot of people I got 'suckered' into Hallmark ornaments for the children. I had the "expecting' ornament when I was pregnant with Will. Then of course "baby's first Christmas," and this year is "2."

My husband's birthday is December so I have to come up with double the gift ideas! However, by now he should know that one of his birthday presents will be a new ornament from Hallmark. they always make some funny ones. This year we got Caddyshack! "Its in the HOLE!"

These pictures are so special to me. they are even more special to my sister. These are my Nephews!! One of my sister's most favorite traditions are baking cookies from scratch with her boys. they love playing in the dough and cutting them out....

They also decorate with sprinkles and they have Choo Choo aprons!!!

Some other favorite traditions I don't have pictures for:

1. My sister and I have a 'dessert off' at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It started as helping our mom out since she cooks so much. It ended in competition! So now at those two dinners we prepare a dessert to be judged based on taste, festivity, and presentation! I have to admit that I have not been the champ for the last 2! yikes!

2. On Christmas Eve we open up one gift, and have fancy appetizers for dinner!

3. Make a thermos of hot chocolate and go riding around looking at Christmas lights!

4. Watch Christmas movies every night for weeks in December! We'll seriously watch our favorites (Elf, Scrooge, Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation) like four times each by the time Christmas is here... Then Christmas story ALL day on Christmas day on TV!

5. Decorate with 'the Christmas story' Christmas villages.

That's all I can think of right now! Send me some of yours and I'll share!

6 days until Christmas!

Merry Christmas Tree Triangle! I think you just cannot get enough 'goodie boxes' this time of year to give away! This is Tina's triangle box. (EASY instructions on her blog or email me) She is so creative! I thought it would make a GREAT Christmas tree! Brads for ornaments. Topiary ink stamped ornaments on topiary cardstock. Liquid glass and prisma glitter garland with a big ol' bow 'star!'

This is the back of the box. You can use a hold punch and just tie a ribbon through. I used eyelets so it might hold up better. Especially if you are putting some chocolate Christmas goodies in there to give away! :-)

Last Chance

Clearance end tonight at midnight! There are still some great things out there! I ordered the $30.00 grab bag & got in the mail yesterday and my mom took it! She wrapped it and wont let me open it until CHRISTMAS! yikes! Can I wait that long!? I ordered one for myself the first day the sale started and the contents were well worth the $100.00 retail value they say they are. I got LOTS of stamps, paper, embellishments, etc.. So cool! Im such a sucker for surprise! Have a good day!

7 days until Christmas!!!!

Here's some more Cute lil boxes. These are actually die cut from the cricut- but you could probably create from a pattern yourself. I wish I had more time to put some cute shredded red paper in them or something to dress em up! How cute with a 3x3 Christmas card and some hersheys kisses! :-) PERFECT for gift card holders too!!!!!! Don't buy those holders for gift cards because you can totally make them cuter than what you can buy! Up close on the back of the green box. I love liquid glass during the holidays!!! Parts of the boxes have some on it!

Okay - this was my go at making some napkin rings.... Not bad BUT i think it would be super pretty to do some with cranberry and bamboo and wrap with raffia! Maybe with green and red napkins. :-) I will do that one next! So easy - get you some cardstock, B&T paper, stamp it up, glue it up, and tie it up!! :-)

DON'T MISS OUT!

Holiday Heyday is only for two more days! shop at: tonyamccrary.myctmh.com! Those grab bags are AWESOME! $100.00 worth of stuff for ONLY $30.00!!! Yahoo! Stamps for $4.00 too! Hope you all are DONE with your holiday stresses and can relax and enjoy!! Wrap those presents this week so you can watch Christmas movies all next week! :-)

8 days until Christmas!

Cute lil goody box! Few more tags and my goodie box!

9 days until Christmas!

This post is kind of a hodge podge of stuff! This is my sweet & oldest nephew Carter. He was in his school's Christmas play last weekend. We were so proud of him. He's only 5, but said his lines more perfect than I ever could have! :-) This is a coaster book I made after Tina Sutton posted hers, and passed along to us the instructions! (THANKS TINA!) I love these! What great stocking stuffers for grandparents OR lil presents from the kids! I'd be happy to pass along the instructions to anyone who wants them. Just drop me an email or comment with your email.. Also, You do not have to use 'coasters.' I used chipboard and just cut it out and rounded the edges. You only need two of them! :-)

I used Cranberry and New England Ivy papers and ink but you could certainly change it up! CUTE! I cant believe I havent made one of these with our Jingle paper right? haha

These two cute cards below were made by my good friend Melinda. Melinda always says she 'new' and still 'learning' but I think she is WELL passed 'ametuer' status NOW! You can no longer use that! :-) Thanks Melinda for sharing and letting me post these!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Yesterday was my wonderful husband's birthday! We had a great day - church, eating cake, opening presents, watching football! My kinda day- I know it was HIS! LOL This cake was delicious! My friend gave me the recipe a while back and I am just now getting to try it.. Its a regular chocolate cake mix BUT you add a bunch of eggs- a bunch of oil -a bunch of buttermilk- and vanilla pudding mix! YUMMY! Icing is homemade cream cheese icing with powdered sugar and cool whip!!! :-)

10 days till Christmas!

Okay so this isnt "Christmasy" so I'll probably post again later..... but..... This is a quick get well card I made! Such a cute idea to put a bandaid in - especially when you have children! You can make the card from them! :-) My HORRIBLE attempt at trying to write like a child! I should have just written normal- probably would have resemble a kid more! hahah

11 days until Christmas!!!

HAPPY WINTER!!! I hope it snows again soon! This has been one of the coldest Decembers we've had! It will probably be 75 degrees on Christmas day! :-( LOL I wanted to emboss a snowflake b/c embossing looks so neat! Especially with silver! I use to think embossing was hard, but all you do is stamp, sprinkle some powder, and heat it up! Wha-la! Here's your result! I distressed the edges of the paper to give it a whimsy look. Keep the ribbon light and airy with snowflakes!

I put just a dab of liquid glass on the center of the muted color (bamboo ink ) snowflake. NO glitter b/c the embossing was enough 'glam' for this look!

12 days 'til Christmas! My true love gave.. oh wait that is '"of" Christmas not "till"... :-)

I hope you all have your shopping done!!! Its getting closer! I wanted to play with this snowman stamp- it was my favorite last year! I don't really know what I'm gonna do with it - I may use it on a scrapbook page OR i may turn it into a card? hmmm....

I used Crystal Blue ink on Crystal blue paper and use Colonial white snowflakes! I may dress it up some later with sparkles and or shimmer mist but I wanted to decide how I was gonna use it first! Paper piecing is so FUN! ....makes stamps look great!@

13 days until Christmas!

My lil army of Christmas cards!! I finally got them done! Now Im just waiting on my pictures to get here to send them out! Im behind this year - normally I have them out like a week ago!

I had totally planned on doing 40 but stopped at 24 because I juat ran out of time! I shoul dhave started earlier.

Evensong B&T paper, New England Ivy ink and Cranberry ink. Complete with liquid glass, prisma glitter and lots of ink distressing! Amazing what a few supplies and ALOT of time can get you!

14 Days until Christmas!

Here is a card I made suitable for money holder. I wanted to make something so I could use our felt cut outs. (Christmas tree) This card is a little plain, but I didnt want to take away from the tree! The tree is decorated with cranberry waxy flax, brads, rhinestone frames (cut out) and a glitter rub on STAR! :-) Originals and Wishes 'how to' program for cards has the cutest ideas in it. The naturual hemp holds this card closed wrapped around brads! Our card 'how to' programs also come with a CD full of templates! FUN!