Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Christmas Puzzle for My Daughter


My daughter loves going to the A-Kon convention here in Dallas every year.  For those of you that don’t know what this is, it’s a convention based around Japanese Anime (animation).   Last year was going to be extra special with hotel reservations and being there all weekend, but it just wasn’t in the cards last year, so I fixed that this year.  I bought tickets and booked the hotel room online for a Christmas gift for her, but how was I going to wrap email confirmations and make it look good???

Then, I figured some kind of scrapbooking was in order, and I thought, why not make a puzzle?  So, I pulled out some retired Asian looking designer paper and made a background.  Then, using Mod Podge, I glued more of the designer paper on the cardboard backing that comes with the paper and used my Big Shot to die cut letters to spell out “AKON & HOTEL”.





I thought it was too easy, but it did take her a while to figure it.  The first try she came up with “HALO & TOKEN” which was wild that that even worked out.  She was absolutely thrilled when she solved it…I got huge hugs and the look on her face as she figured it out was priceless.  We will go right before she graduates and she can also invite one or two friends to come along.  I plan to craft in the hotel room, so I also scored a weekend of crafting without too many disruptions!


Happy Stampin’


Monday, December 10, 2012

Hanukkah Celebrations - Happy Hanukkah


We get to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah at our house...twice the fun.  My husband grew up celebrating Hanukkah with his adopted parents and that tradition has continued with our kids getting multiple holidays every year.  So, our family always has a Menorah on our mantle right under our wreath, and we also used to play the dreidel game when the kids were younger.  When my husband and I were dating as teenagers, I asked him to teach me the Hebrew prayer said as you light the candles, and I have never forgotten it.  It's fun to me because it's in another language.

Anyway, I always buy Stampin' Up!'s Hanukkah set each year to have more options for Hanukkah cards and tags.  Here's what I made this year with the Hanukkah Celebrations stamp set (the star piecing design is copied from the sample in the catalog).  I used Midnight Muse and Marina Mist.  I also used Illuminate ink on the star of David card and tags and used the Gold Stampin' Dazzle marker for the candle flames...just colored them on right over the Midnight Muse ink.





Happy Holidays ~ whichever ones they may be!