The Christmas Tree

The Tradition of the Christian Christmas Tree

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season whose leaf does not wither. ~ Psalm 1: 1-3

The Tannenbaum is a symbol of peace and eternal life. A Christian Christmas Tree, represents the Cross on which hung the light of the world, who, when He died, completed His union in love with His church. The Cross reunited earth and sky, God and humanity in love. The lights of the tree represent Jesus, the light of the world; the ornaments represent us, the fruits - the offspring of the union between Jesus and His church. And thus did the Tannenbaum become the Christian Christmas tree.

I made some cards last year using "Lovely as a Tree" with cream and black. Not your ordinary colors for Christmas, but the card and matching boxes turned out quite nice. I had seen them in one of the stamping/craft magazines, and made the boxes in various combinations of the colors. First is the tree card, then the boxes.I have included two different versions using the Lovely as a Tree stamp, one in the black and cream/gold, the other in neutral tones.

The Christian Christmas Tradition of the Advent Wreath

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. ~ John 8:12

In our first Christmas tradition, we recognize the Advent wreath, which symbolizes several things:

The evergreen, which represents everlasting life found in Christ.
The circle of the wreath, which symbolizes life without end.
And the candles, which remind us of Christ as the light of the world.

So I chose to make a Christmas wreath , using the symbol of evergreens as one of my Christmas cards this year.

Here's my "pile" of finished cards.
Supplies: Riding hood red, whisper white cs; Riding hood red taffeta ribbon; Snowburst & Holiday blitz snowflakes for the wreath, and a good ol pencil eraser for the berries!!
Merry Christmas!!

MORE tags!!

Here's what you can do with punches. We made these tags also. I punched out all the pieces so the ladies could finish them up at home. Very little stamping here, but lots of tiny pieces!!

Tags, tags, and more tags!

Sunday I had a class on making tags for Christmas, using the Deer Friends Level II hostess set. I used Ski Slope paper and one sheet from Frosty Day dp. All tags were 3x5 inches. How do you like our book of tags? I put all the tags in a card portfolio, stamped with the Snowmen from Holiday Lineup.

Tim Holtz Christmas Tags

I know many of you know who Tim Holtz is.. if not.. he's a very creative multimedia artist and entreprenneur. Here is one of his tags for this year. Every year he creates 12 tags for Christmas. This is day 2. You can see the tutorial to make this tag on his blog and view the rest of his gorgeous artistic tags at TIM HOLTZ.

Snow flakes are falling

Well.. the temperatures are going down.. though it's not real apparent here in the desert yet... until it reaches about 7PM, then you can really feel it.. The nights are just getting cooler and you can see the leaves changing and falling. Soon it will be cold, and the mountain tops will be white with snow caps. Though on the west side of the Sandias, the sun tends to melt the first winter snows. To get in the mood for winter, snow, skiing, snowboarding.. or just plain enjoying the lovely little white flakes that sometimes fall down here in town... we made some beautiful embossed snowflake cards at Rhondas. She designs all the weekly cards and really has outdone herself with this one. Embellished with felt snowflakes and rhinestone brads in the middle...they really make a beautfil simple card. Enjoy!!

Snowburst Samples

Customer samples from the workshop. We used the new Pacific Pt and Baja Breeze inks from SU along with the coordinating paper and ribbon. Large center snowflake accented with dazzling diamonds.

Holy Triptych Arches

The images in the arches were stamped with Stazon black onto polished stone backgrounds. The chipboard arches were from Provocraft Etc. line. I think they are now discontinued, but I have a few left to do something else with...maybe an Easter or Mother's Day creation is eminent. After I made the polished stone pieces and stamped the images, I also embossed the overlay scrolls in gold on the night of navy cardstock, and cut out to fit on top of the polished stone pieces. This way youy could line up the pieces to fit in the arches with no "white showing" beneath.

The bottom is the scroll design from Baroque Motif stamp set using gold encore ink. I edged the arches with the gold ziggy pen, made some stars with glue and dazzling diamonds glitter, stamped the saying in gold encore, and in the final version that got sent off... added a square red/orange rhinestone brad over the Holy family image. Both sides of the chipboard arch were covered with Night of Navy cardstock from SU.


Before I went into the hospital to have my knee replaced, I had taught a Christmas card class for my customers. One of the things I had them make was a little stand up arches using the SU Holy Triptych stamp set. I submitted one to SU for their monthly contest, but alas, I heard nothing.. so I hope they enjoyed it anyway. Here is my version of the Holy Triptych arches.

I'm HOME!!

Well, I am home and made it down the stairs to my stamp room to my computer!!! Yeayyyyy!!! So now I could load some pictures (at least for a few minutes). I had a total left knee replacement on Nov 2nd. I went to a rehab hospital (thank goodness for rehab facilities!!) for about 2 wks. I never would have been able to get around, into or out of bed if it hadn't been for that time with all those PT sessions which I hated.. but made my knee stronger. I can get around to do some cooking.. but the BAD knee (other one that needs to be replaced) is hurting and giving me fits!!!Makes my hips hurt after standing a while.. and can you see me with a walker, trying to get an 8 lb ham out of the bottom shelf of a frig!!! Maybe someone ought to be taking pics of me doing all these antics!! So here's some of the cards our group did before I went into the hospital.. Then I also have a few pics of the pumpkin cards I made while in the rehab hospital with some beautiful papers my friend Rhonda gave me to keep me busy...and the pumpkin set from the Holiday mini flyer.