A Christmas Greeting from Shalae

I asked my daughter Shalae to guest post today—she sent out darling Christmas cards this year that I wanted her to share!

Every year Jon and I send out Christmas cards—it’s pretty much the only time we keep in touch with our friends! Jon is in school, and the three preschool-age kids keep me plenty busy, so we don’t get to socialize much. And since we moved to Georgia in August, I really wanted to make sure we touched base this year!

When we started thinking about this year’s card, I kind of felt like we had to top last year’s card—which was very cool. Jon loves to come up with fun projects, so he took on the assignment.

He came up with a neat pull-down photo card. At first glance, it looks like a regular card, but it doesn’t open up.

Instead, you pull the photo down, out of the card.

The ribbon keeps it connected to the card. I loved it when he showed it to me, and got very excited about making them.

Well, 125 cards later, I had lost a little of my enthusiasm; they turned out to be more time-consuming than I thought they’d be! I spent days working on them. I even put my mom to work when she came and visited us last month. I was thrilled when we finally got them finished and mailed out! They were worth the effort though—everyone I talk to mentions how much they enjoyed receiving them.

I’m already thinking about next year’s card. I think Jon will be assigned to come up with the mechanics, but I will tell him we do NOT need to top this year’s card. I’ll be just fine with cards that don’t take nearly as long to make. . . .

Holiday Festivities

Every Christmas, we celebrate the season in both Riverton and Kanab with a few simple activities.

On Thursday we held our Riverton lunchtime festivities. The highlight for me is listening to our Stampin’ Singers, a very talented group of employees who practice for weeks and then perform several songs for us (this year they did four). They always seem to find songs I’ve never heard, and I love hearing them. This year was no different, and I’ve actually included a short video of part of one song (That Child, That King), which I loved! Click here to see it.

We also had hot chocolate and doughnuts, and I must admit I’ve now fallen in love with a new doughnut. I’m kind of a Krispie Kreme fan, but I think I’m transferring my allegiance to Dunford, especially the Dunford glazed!

Today in Kanab we had our traditional potluck Christmas lunch. We can still do that because our numbers in Kanab are small enough that it works. I enjoy spending time with our wonderful employees at Kanab, and today was no different. There is a warm, cozy feeling because everyone pretty much knows everyone.

Of course, because it’s all about food for me, I also look forward to the potluck part of this activity. My favorites were the homemade root beer (I’m not a soda fan, but I was disappointed when it was gone), the pumpkin roll (I don’t think I’ve tasted one since high school, and it brought back lots of fond memories!), and the homemade cranberry sauce (never even tasted it before and it was tasty!).

At both Riverton and Kanab, we handed out service awards to our employees who have been with us five, ten, and fifteen years. This is also a highlight for me, and I love the chance to thank these loyal employees for all that they do for us! We had two employees—Darlene Davie in Riverton and Monica Domis in Kanab—who have reached the 15-year mark. They got extra-special hugs, and I hope they’re both around for another 15 years at least! 

Although I wasn’t able to celebrate the holiday with the employees in each of our offices around the world, we all got together for a few minutes over the phone lines. After our phone call yesterday, our Germany office sent this photo to me, and it made me smile a big smile. I must print it and put it where I can see it often!

Polka Dot Girls

In October, I blogged about a cute little quartet of sisters who came and serenaded me for my birthday. The girls, ages 8 to 15, live in my neighborhood, and they love to sing.

Well, they stopped by again last night to share some Christmas carols. They’ve added a few movements to their repertoire, and they are amazing! We mentioned that they were good enough to get paid, and their mom said that they had started a little business. (She gave us their business card and contact information: Polka Dot )

It shouldn’t surprise you that I love to support entrepreneurs—Stampin’ Up! is based on the entrepreneurial spirit of incredible women everywhere—especially when real talent is involved. (My little brother used to go around our neighborhood selling rocks, and while he gets points for effort, there wasn’t a lot of value in what he was selling!)

These girls, on the other hand, have real talent! They each play at least one musical instrument, and they love performing—you can tell. Mom isn’t behind the scenes prodding them along. This is something they enjoy doing.

Sterling already told them to put our anniversary on their calendar, and I’m looking forward to paying them for that appearance! 
 
 

Stamping with Friends

During the Australia convention last May, I showed a batch of holiday gift tags for part of my stamping presentation. Pam Morgan (Stampin’ Up!’s vice president of demonstrator development) was with me and she fell in love with the tags. “Promise me that you’ll invite me over to make these tags sometime before the holidays,” she said.

Well, the holidays were still many months away, so I promised.

Now the holidays aren’t so far away, and I realized that if I was going to keep my promise, we’d better plan an evening pretty soon…as in immediately.

The only day Pam could do it that I could do it was last night. Happily, both her daughter and several of my daughters were also available. So we had a fun stamping night with family and friends.

Pam and her daughter did the tags (swapping out some of the Australian product for current US product) while the rest of us worked on other stamping projects. And I was reminded again how fun it is to stamp—especially with a group of friends.

We chatted, we laughed, we shared, and we left with completed projects in hand. Oh, Pam brought dinner for all of us too, and it was yummy! What more can you ask for!

Here are the original tags, so you can check them out for yourselves. . . 

Baskets & Blooms

I had another TV appearance today. Not quite as stressful as last week’s, but you always want to do your best for any television show! I was on our local KJZZ News at Nine program; the topic was holiday gift ideas for friends, neighbors, and even co-workers.

Stampin’ Up! has a 12 Days of Holiday Sales promotion going on right now, and a selection of Big Shot dies are available at 15 to 25 percent off, so I used one of those (the Baskets and Bloom die) along with our Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin’ for most of the gift ideas.

I wanted to show how versatile the die was, and it was fun coming up with different ways to use each of the pieces.

The Holiday Potpourri gift bag is a wonderful idea—quick and easy to make, you can get the ingredients (orange, cinnamon sticks, and cloves) anywhere, and it’s very affordable.

You just fold the sides of the basket to create the tag (I folded them in then out again so there was a strip of the coordinating color along the front of the tag), include the recipe, and you’re done!

The Garden Gate toffee bag uses pretty much the same basket tag, but it’s tied up with a ribbon, instead of the self-adhesive Simply Scrappin’ strip.

The two treat bags feature the basket made as it’s meant to be—a regular, 3D project, filled with fun goodies. The handles are folded down on one of the baskets and kept up on the other.

The red felt basket is made by simply keeping the basket die flat. There’s still room to tuck a few goodies (or maybe a gift card) inside, and I really like the different look of this basket. Check out the tag—the bow on the present is the flower from the same die!

The 2^nd gift tag shows the same flower as a bow, but with a different present and back ground.

Now those of you who are organized and on top of things have probably already got your neighbor gifts made, and maybe even passed out! In addition to being jealous of you, I wanted to inspire you as well, so here’s the same felt basket idea with a different color for a Valentine’s Day project. The Real Red flower makes the perfect accent.

And check out this 2^nd Valentine’s Day tag—the hearts on it are the same Real Red felt flower, just cut into thirds. I love it when we come up with a different way to use something other than the obvious.

And while I was waiting for my segment to begin, I actually started thinking about the holiday after Valentine’s Day—St. Patrick’s Day. If you cut it carefully, the outline flower makes a great four-leaf clover (I didn’t show that, I just thought of it while I was waiting. . .). Stick that on a green felt basket, fill it with gold coins, and you’ve got your next holiday covered.

And with the versatility of this great die, you could come up with something for every single holiday, I’m sure. Switch out the color palette, think creatively, and let the fun begin!