OOOOH Friends! Nina Perrin of Purple Faerie Paper Crafts invited me to be a Featured Artist on her blog and newsletter… HOW COOL IS THAT??? Here’s the article I wrote for her. What an honor!! Thank you Nina!

It’s Beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

My fall decor has returned to its storage boxes. We’ve put the lights on the outside of the house, Christmas tunes ring out of the stereo, we’ve pulled the garlands and nativities from their boxes under the stairs, and we started putting the tree up this week. So far we have 8′ of artificial evergreen glory with about a zillion lights that Brent neatly wound through the branches. With any luck we will have the ornaments and ribbon on it tomorrow night and can finish up the Christmas decorating. My parents are visiting with us for the month of December. This year we will introduce them to one of our favorite family traditions: Santa Cookies. The making of Santa Cookies is quite the production, but the end result is FABULOUS! But, before we get on to making Santa Cookies for our friends and neighbors, I must tackle my messy studio in preparation of “The Great Card Making Adventure”.

There’s something extra special about giving handmade gifts and cards for Christmas. I mean, it’s fun and all to pick out a box of pre-printed generic cards at the local stationery store, but there’s something extra special about a card or a gift when it comes from your hands and heart. This year there are a few things I will be making to give to close friends and family. I will be making a fun desk top flip calendar using a digital design from www.jessicasprague.com. I will digitally add the photos and create the calendars, then print them out and will add traditional elements like brads, flowers and ribbons to the printed project. For the “art part” of each month, I will put a photo of myself, Brent or Sadie or combination of us with other family members. Each page will be adhered to chipboard and spiral bound for easy flipping. I think that this will be a hit with the grandparents and great grandparents.

This year I will be making a couple of different cards to send. (Variety is nice when making a large quantity of cards.) One of them will be a revamp of a card I made using the “Tons of Tree’s stamp set from Skipping Stones Design this summer and posted on my blog. I drooled over the Tons of Trees stamp set since I first saw it and decided I had to use it. I used a “new to me technique” – mixed media…I used FELT on a card…way out of my crafting box. LOL! I’m adding a little ribbon to the eyelets and a little more texture on the Kraft brown areas. I will send this card with our family Christmas letter, which I also needed to tackle this weekend.

Christmas is fast approaching. It’s time to pull out our paper crafting supplies and get cracking on our gifts and cards. I hope you have much fun this year crafting marvelous holiday paper crafts! Here’s to a blessed and joyous Christmas and a prosperous New Year! Inky Smiles!

Merry (early) Christmas!!!!