Happy Birthday, Jesus!

It's my favorite holiday ever!  I love celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus!  I'm truly thankful for the best  gift ever; the gift of new life that I have been given.  A life of fullness, peace and hope.  There's just simply nothing better!


"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  Isaiah 9:16 


I'm so blessed to have so many family and friends.  I just wanted to take a moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year!

Thanks for being such amazing visitors to my blog!  I appreciate you so much and hope you are having an amazing holiday time.

xoxo
Julie

hollywood beauties

I finally bought some albums with sleeves a few weeks ago to hold the massive piles of photos I have sitting in my room.  Anyone?  Ya.  So, I while I was going through them, I found this sweet one that I took of the girls while we were in California.  Won't mention how long ago that was!!  I've been saving this photo cuz it holds so me great memories and I knew I wanted to scrap it some day.  So, I finally did!

Supplies:  Cardstock - Bazzill;  Pattern Paper - Pink Paislee Vintage Vogue (Dress Shop, Taffeta, Tailored Suit); Stickers - American Crafts Thickers, Authentique; Die Cuts - Pink Paislee Vintage Vogue; Paper Rosettes - Pink Paislee Vintage Vogue; Spool Buttons - Pink Paislee Vintage Vogue; Ink - Clearsnap Colorbox Chestnut Roan; Font - Guess What.

If it appears that I might just be dreaming of warmer places right now, you might be right!  Although, there is nothing more beautiful than a sunny December day on the Oregon Coast!

Okay, back to the scheduled programming.  I hope to have a few more festive things to share.  In the mean time, have super terrific day!

Create your tag!

Stamps Waltzingmouse Fancy Phrases, Quietfire Designs; Fancy Pants Designs St. Nick Pattern Paper; Want2Scrap Pearls; CosmicShimmer Embossing Powder; Clearsnap Colorbox Chestnut Roan Chalk Ink, Top Boss Watermark Ink; My Mind's Eye™ Twine (Lost Collection); Spellbinders Die Templates - Picot Edge Circles, Ironworks Motifs, Holiday Tags,  Foliag

I'm so excited that my brother and his family will be coming down from Canada to join us for Christmas this year.  I feel like now that school is out for the kids, the Christmas holiday time has really begun.  The one thing I 'm a little behind on is wrapping gifts.  Poor kids!  The tree has been up for weeks and I already bought their gifts but I just haven't wrapped them yet.  They probably think they are getting a lump of coal for Christmas!  LOL  Anyhoo...I love to make my gifts extra puuurdy.  That includes a fancy tag!  I gave a little tutorial on the Spellbinders blog if you want to see how I made this one.  I actually created a stamp out of fun foam for this one!

We had a such fun Christmas Party at our house last night.  Because my fudge didn't turn out so well, we had to eat snowmen instead.  They were melting and very, very upset.  

The girls helped me make them and we had such a blast!  These guys each have their own personality!  I first saw them on Pinterest but the original recipe came from here.  What I realized afterward is that in order to make them really look like they're 'puddling' you need to make the cookies very big!  I guess everyone felt so sorry for them because not very many got eaten!  LOL  But we had soooo much food.  Let's just say it's a good thing that we have a middles school party coming up at our house next week because there is a TON of yummy treats left overs!  

Thanks so much for taking time to visit me!  Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Counting down the days!

It's hard to believe that 2011 and is already coming to an end!  If you are looking for some handmade gift ideas here is a fun one!  This is a personalized calendar that I made last year for Spellbinders and it was picked up by Northridge for their Create:  Mini Albums Winter issue.

Supplies:  Die Templates:  Spellbinders - Grand Labels Eleven, Ribbon Tags Trio Two, Grommet Tags, Labels Twenty-One, Elegant Posts, Rose Creations, Carnation Creations; Clearsnap Chestnut Roan olorbox Fluid Chalk Ink; WorldWin Cardstock; Teresa Collins Noel Pattern Paper; Jillibean Soup Kraft Cardstock; October Afternoon Alphabet Stickers;  Collage Press Stamps; Zutter Bind-It-All

The girls and I had a great time baking yesterday.  The cookies from my previous post didn't turn out quite how I had imagined and not even close to looking like the professional ones.  But, we made memories!!  

Have a super creative day!

Yum! Time to celebrate!!

Brrrrr!  It's gettin' cold outside!  I love a crackling fire so I don't mind!  We've been enjoying friends over and look forward to an Open House on Friday (the kids last day of school...fun stuff!)  I've been looking through Pinterest to find some yummy recipe and holiday ideas!  If you're looking for ideas on how to decorate your table for a Holiday party, I have instructions up on the Spellbinder blog on how to make this lil' ensemble!

I wanted to share this fun, festive recipe I found and I think I will try for our party.  I think the kids will love it!  I found it on Pinterest but the recipe and photo came from the blog called Baked Perfection. 

Candy Cane Blossoms
recipe from Hershey's


1 bag Hershey;s Kisses brand Candy Cane Kisses
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons milk
Red and Green colored sugar


Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove wrappers from candies (approx. 35)


Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; add alternatively with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.


Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in red and/or green colored sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.


Bake 8 - 1o minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookies is set. Remove from oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes. Press candy piece into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Yields approximately 35 cookies.

(Secretly, I might just want to make these because Candy Cane Kisses are my total FAVE....not that I would be doing any taste testing...at all...while making these!)

Have you seen Betty Crocker's Top 10 Holiday Trends??  Oh my!  They have quite an inspiring site! Check it out!    How fun are these????  It not only makes me want to bake but I'm seriously inspired to create now too!

How about you, do you have any favorite holiday recipes that you think I should try?  I'm making my list and checking it twice!!

**Scrapbook Trends Giveaway Winner**  Melita!!  Send me your addy at julieoverby at peak dot org and I'll get that out to you.

Thanks for stopping by!!

'Tis The Season!!

I think that somewhere back in the middle of October someone accidentally hit the fast forward button and it got stuck!  I know this sounds cliche but I honestly don't know what happened to November?  Anyone?

I've decided that I want to soak up every moment of this Christmas season.  Savor the smells, read a little more with the kids, look for ways to bless people in need, sittin' by the fire...pinning : ) and spending lots of  time with family and friends.

At the beginning of the month I did get to teach another class at our local scrapbooking store and I surprised everyone taking the class with these fun treat bags.  The Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia die templates and Picot Edge Circles made them so quick and easy to put together.

It's always at this time of year that I'm crafting up a storm with things that I can't share!!  Either with new product or for submissions.  I will tell ya that the few times I have sat down to write a post I get sucked into editing the hundreds of photos that are calling my name!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE to edit photos, nearly as much as taking them.  I promise I won't share them all but it's hard to sort through and pick just a few!

Here is one of my recent faves.  It's of a Newborn photo shoot I recently did.  I haven't even touched the other pictures yet but there were some real fun ones that I can't wait to get to.

Then there are the tree pictures!  Oh my!  LOL  We went to the coolest place to get our tree.  We let the kids and the dog run and run.  It was hilarious to see them trying to run and hide from Max!  It's been so much fun editing them but I think I'll wait and share them on a layout!

Today, I had a happy box arrive on my doorstep from Northridge Media (thank you!)  I have an extra copy.  Are you interested?  LMK!  I'd be happy to send it out to one of my blog readers.  I'll randomly choose someone from the the comments on Sunday, midnight PST.  I have a few scrappy goodies to throw in with it as well!

Thanks so much for not giving up on me!