It's time for a fantastic week ahead with more Pretty Packaging ideas!  I have all kinds of festive decorations, gift ideas and packaging ideas for the week ahead...this week with the fabulous Flourishes November Release Sneak Peeks.  Are you ready for a week full of all things wrapped up nice and pretty? 

This is the first year that we have a mantle at this house, and I'm so excited to have it decorated!   When we first moved to this house 11 years ago the mantle was an ugly railroad-like tie.  I really disliked it and asked my husband to take it down....and we said we'd replace it...well it took 10 years (lol!), but this summer my husband made a new mantle, and I love it!  He really did a beautiful job crafting it. 

I used this stunning new set illustrated by Marcy called Christmas Bouquet, it contains beautiful Amaryllis flowers, figs, pinecones, leaves and berries.  I watercolored 3 of the arrangements and created a banner celebrating the JOY of Christmas for our new mantle.  This probably won't be how I decorate the top of the mantle once I really take out all the Christmas decorations...but I wanted to show you a Christmassy feel (I even cut up some of the pine tree in the yard to use as garland!).  Just in case you're wondering, yes I did paint the painting above the mantle, it was way back when I used to draw and watercolor, I did it for my husband because it's one of his favourite Bible verses. 


Because our living room has chocolate browns and "Kiwi Kiss" looking accents right now,  I used the SU Christmas paper from last year called Holiday Treasures.  I thought it would really give it a festive feel. 
 
Here are some closer pictures....
 
 
Well, all week the Flourishes girls Design Team and Friends of Flourishes Blog Team are going to bring you wonderful gift ideas with the New Release Sneak Peeks, so please visit often!  Here's who's up for today!
 
Cindy Lawrence,  Julie Koerber, Latisha Yoast,  Laura Fredrickson,  Leslie Miller,  Stacy Morgan
 
And to win this fantastic set today please see the Flourishes Newsletter

Recipe:  Stamps:  Flourishes - Christmas Bouquet;  Ink:  Black Stazon, Ruby Red Craft;  Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, European Watercolor Paper, SU Holiday Treasures DSP, Whisper White;  Accessories:  Big Shot, Pennants Die, Labels One Nestabilities, Blossom Nestabilities, Scallop Edge Punch, Kaiser Pearls (Pewter), Fancy Label Punch, Chipboard Letters, Striped Ribbon (SU), K&Co Button Brads, Sticky Strip, Slit Punch, Dimensionals. Reinkers, SW Markers, Aqua Painter. 

Today's Challenge for the Flourishes Design Team was to be inspired by the lyrics to this song from the Sound of Music....one of my favourite movies of all time!  In fact, I asked my then boyfriend - now husband to come to my place after our 3rd date to watch it on TV.  :)  I KNEW it was love if he agreed to come watch the Sound of Music!  He did, and here we are 16 years later.  :)


My mom also asked me to make a candle and card for the mom of a friend who is turning 90.  Really its such a simple gift to make a candle, and yet the fact that the two coordinate makes it special.  The roses go all the way around the candle in the different pink colors.  I also bought a candle dish, but forgot to put it under the candle for the photo.

One of my favourite things is watercoloring, as you probably already know.  There is just something about the blend of color that you can achieve with watercolor that is not possible with any other medium.  I also find the process of blending and laying down color really relaxing; quite peaceful.  So this Rose is perfect for the theme and for the birthday card.  This rose is colored with a blend of reinkers and waterbased markers. 

What you may not be able to see are the tiny "raindrops" on the rose, after the card was completely assembled I added Crystal Effects onto the rose and sprinkled it with Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Hi Stamping Friends,

I didn't fall off the face of the earth :) 

Just took a blogging/stamping break for a couple of weeks.  Sometimes I just need that to get restored.  I really wanted to get some things done around the house too and I find myself too divided sometimes if I'm so focussed on stamping.  So...a break is a good thing.  Though I didn't get as much done on the home project level as I wanted to, it was a restorative couple of weeks for me.

I turned another year older, celebrated my mom's birthday with her, did some painting and organizing, got closer to finishing up a couple of knitting projects, got the family immunized for H1N1 (which I'm so grateful for - so many people I know are sick), just sat to watch movies with the kids....the list goes on :)

But I'm back and I have some wonderful things planned for you for the next couple of weeks.  I decided I'm going to focus on something we all need in the weeks ahead.  Did you know that Christmas Eve is only 49 days away?  Wowzers!  I really want this to be the year where all my shopping is done in November!

I really do enjoy giving homemade things to friends and family.  So...over these next weeks you'll see projects most every day based on either gift ideas, or Pretty Packaging ideas.  Sometimes a simple gift is made all the more special just by some pretty packaging. Some will be simple, some will be more elaborate. 

So, today's project is a simple one.  Our daughter made 8 dozen cookies a few weeks ago because we wanted to give some away to teachers etc.  (Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip and Oatmeal Scotchies). So, I wanted to package them up in a pretty way and say thank you for all they do in working with our kids each day. 

It's another Flourishes Friday Focus, and this week it's ME who's the Hostess focusing on something to tickle your creative fancy  :)  Over at the Flourishes Newsletter I have a full tutorial on my own Fancy Fold card design, so I invite you on over to take a look at how this was made.  Here's the finished project

Closed:

and open:


I call it a Christine Tri-Fold Book :)   The musical instruments and Holly and bows from the brand new Drummer Boy set were colored with Copic Markers, Evergreen, Fields and Water Collections, and then cut out with the Large Octagonal Nestabilities, and then adding the bows and holly popped up.  Kaiser Rhinestones as accent.  Lots more pictures at the Flourishes Newsletter too. 

For this card I took some great instruction from Valerie Stangle on how she made a vertical Z-Fold Card from World Cardmaking Day.  She's so creative with her Scor Pal!!

I love the different and classy look to this card!  I watercolored and sponged the doves scene from the new Dove and Holly set in deep colors, Soft Suede, Bravo Burgundy and Always Artichoke.  I did an-out-of-the-box cutting of the Doves with my Labels One Nestabilities.

Here is a picture of the card open:


The embossed layer is done with the Finial Press Embossing folder, and I bordered the bottom with the Fancy Scalloped Pierceabilities, and the background paper is 7Gypsies Savannah.  I LOVE how the Finishing Touches brads look on this card as the accents too.

And here is a picture all the way open so you can see the back panel:

Today is another Dirty Dozen and Alumni Challenge ...but before I get to the card.  It's a big day, and I just found that I have a lot to say about it.  Feel free to pass by my Mom story to the card if you need to :)

Today is our daughters' 13th Birthday.  Today at 6:20 AM she becomes a teenager.  We threatened to wake her to celebrate LOL!  I just can't believe it's been 13 years.   I had the shocking realization the other day that we probably only have about 5 more years with her at home.  And that realization really hit me.  Normally I'm not the kind of Mom that get's too wistful about passages.  Generally I just feel excited to enter into whatever is next for my kids, excited for them, and excited for us.  And yet today I find myself quite wistful about this passage. 

Where did 13 years go?  She is our eldest...the firstborn, the kid that broke us in as parents :)  There were times when it was a major breaking us in (I mean seriously 10 ear infections in her first 18 months???) and yet there have been many other times where she's let us off SO easy compared to her brothers.  She is an amazing young woman already.  Just an inch away from me in height, with bigger feet than me already.  Incredible intelligence.  True compassion for others, and an authentic walk with God.  Willing to help (most of the time!).  And much of the time really fun to be with :)

But just 5 short years till she's 18...if these past 13 years have flown by, oh my, where will the next 5 go?  Will I have taught her enough?  Will we have prepared her for the world she will enter?  Will she value the things that are most important?  Can I hand over the car keys to her in 3 years?  Is she ready for how to handle heartache and is she ready for how to manage celebration?  Can I teach her to love freely but to guard her heart?  That beauty comes most from the beautiful spirit God has given her inside, not outside.  Will she know that receiving really comes most profoundly from giving? 

...oh so much in store these next 5 years.  I'm so glad that God gave me this little glimpse into how short the time is - so I can appreciate it more, and so I can make the most of it.  It is our joy to be her parents.

Alright - what did I create for this brand-new Teen today? 

Well in our DD/DDA Challenge Jodi challenged us to use Paper Piecing and Fall or Christmas colors. 

I paper pieced this young lady to an inch of her life!  Her blouse, dress, shoes (yes those teeny tiny shoes!) and her shopping bags are paper pieced individually with different selections from the Indian Summer Basic Grey pack.  I colored her skin and hair with copics.   I really wanted the sentiment to run vertically so I used my computer to design a little Teenager sentiment and put it into the Fancy Label. 


Some gems and pearls and some gorgeous Satin ribbon seem to give it that grown up feel too. 

Be sure to check out the other DD/DDA Girls creations with the keywords DCPOM1009 on Splitcoaststampers! 

Recipe:  Stamps:  Flourishes Gigi and Chloe;  Ink:  Momento Tuxedo Black;  Paper:  Melon Mambo, Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango, Flourishes Classic White, Basic Grey Indian Summer DSP;  Accessories:  Big Shot, Labels 6 Nestabilities, K & C Gems, Kaiser Pearls, Fancy Labels Nestabilities, Copic Markers, Scallop Punch, Piercer, May Arts Satin (Chocolate).

Our daughter's birthday is tomorrow and this past weekend we worked on her invitations for a party with her friends next weekend.  It was fun to design together.  She liked the idea of an embossing folder, we picked the colors together and planned out the layout, and then I put her to work!  She really did all the parts to the card.  So...this is really her craftsmanship here :)

We wanted a clean and simple design that could easily be done for a number of girls.  She did all the stamping and cutting out of the flowers, popping them up on the embossed layer and adding a simply sentiment.  I think they turned out really sweet!