Secret Sister '08

I am a member of a private google group made up of rubber stampers, scrapbookers, etc. Seems like we dabble in quite a bit of craftiness---anything from beading to knitting to needle felting. We've been a group since before my daughter was born so it's been a few years. Anyway, each year we do a secret sister swap type thing at Xmas time. You can sign up if ya want. If not, no biggie. My SS this year was Michele. She was good to me to say the least. She's also been a great friend over the years even though we've never met in person.

One of the requirements for the swap is to send at least one handmade item. LOOK at this snowman Michele made! It's needle felted. That means it started out as a big ball of wool! I gotta learn how to do this!

And here he is on one of our trees. Notice no other snowmen around him. He is the king of that section. I just love him. Her needle felting is superb. Notice Taylor's popsicle stick ornament from last year. lol. She did the gluing of the foamies. :)

And here's my loot! Yep, she spoiled me. Thanks Michele. You're one of a kind.

Festival of Lights- part 2

Here's my final display of lights. Merry Xmas to all!

Oglebay Festival of Lights Part 1

I am posting this for out-of-towners. Pictures really don't do these lights justice as they are pretty darn big. You can't tell from the photos. Anyone who lives near this area knows alllll about the lights. They are gorgeous BUT the traffic they create can cripple a little section of town for quite a while. I just thought people that live in other states might appreciate this little section of Wheeling, WV. I think because I've lived locally all my life I can't appreciate fully the beauty of them. They are pretty but they come around every year. Taylor did enjoy them especially when we drove through the tunnels of lights.
So here's your tour--part 1. I didn't get every conglomeration due to freezing temperatures and cars behind me. There's nothing worse than waiting and waiting to get through these lights with Granny Moohoo taking her camera out every 5 seconds so these were pretty much taken on the run. Some were taken through the windshield.

I started with what is probably my favorite. Cinderella. I love this one. Then we have some clowns. Moving on down we have a dinosaur extravaganza.

Taylor's favorite---tandy tanes.

A blurry nutcracker. Sorry.

Isn't this a gorgeous lamppost? They are all lined up along one section of the road.

A red bird feeding her young.

This one is more impressive IRL. I only caught part of it.

Stay tuned. I'll post the rest tonight.

Purple Onion Designs Gift Wrap Challenge

Michele over at Purple Onion Designs is hosting a gift wrap challenge on her blog. I believe it ends tonight. I had a gift to wrap so I thought what the heck?! I'll play a little. There are so many layers here.

First off, the actual paper is a recycled a brown bag from my LSS. I saved all of them and used Glimmer Screens and Glimmer Mists to make shiny sparkly paper. There's a lot of bling on the package that unfortunately doesn't photograph well in the night light. Bummer cuz it really shines.

I had the tag base already made. Basically it's spritzed with water and crumpled for a nice aged effect. Then it's sprayed with walnut ink and Glimmer Mist on top of that. Like I said--many layers. I then used the merriness set from POD to stamp the lights and stars on the tag. I used my Nestabilites Labels One die set to cut the base for the snowman scene. I smeared some distress inks on my non-stick craft sheet, spritzed with water and picked up the ink with the white cardstock. I wanted it to be a little mottled. I heated it with my heat gun because I can't possibly wait for something to dry. Stamped the snowman in Memories black ink. The snowman's scarf is colored with Copic markers. I stamped the snowflakes from the merriness set in Brilliance platinum. That little tree is Tim Holtz grungeboard painted with Fired Brick crackle paint also from his line. I added some ornaments with adhesive rhinestones. I edged the tag with a couple different colors of distress ink. And then.........

came the Stickles. I edged the snowman and the entire tag by hand. Dot by dot. Then I attached the tag to the package and thought, "hmmmmm, this needs something." Edged the border in a couple different color inks and then I realized the entire package needed glitter. So dot by dot I finished.

This goes to Mark's boss next week. They stiffed her last year so I figure she's worth it. She's a great boss and a very nice person.

Think she'll know he didn't wrap it?!