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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A Late Merry Christmas and Some News

Well Christmas has come and gone...Santa's cookies and milk were eaten up, kids eyes were amazed by Santa's gifts, Baby Jesus was placed in his manger, we sang Happy Birthday to Him, we opened presents. I always find it amazing how much work it is leading up to that one day...and then it goes by so fast! I have to share one story from Christmas Eve day. My husband took my son out to run a few errands and get some last minute gifts. While at a Dollar Store, my son saw a small Happy Birthday Balloon on a stick and told my husband that he had to get it. Kevin, my husband, then proceeded to tell him that we aren't celebrating a birthday so why do we need the balloon. Elijah then reminded him that we are indeed celebrating a birthday...Jesus's birthday! So he promptly bought the balloon. Gotta love it when your kids remind you what it is suppose to be about!

So I know I am very late with this, but Merry Christmas to all of you. Sorry I didn't get that out prior to Christmas, but you know how it goes! This is the Vernagus Family Christmas Card for 2009. I went back to a very old Stampin' Up! set that I had used for a previous Christmas card and chose a different image. In an attempt to keep it simple, considering the fact that I didn't start them until around Dec. 7 or so, I did a one layer card. The bird image and the greeting was stamped and embossed with black embossing powder. Then I colored the bird image with a blender pen and ink pads. My son decided he needed to do the same, so he got to color the cards for his teachers. Anyway, then I embossed the square around the image with my Nestabilities and the Cuttlebug. A 5/8" Real Red grosgrain ribbon finished it off. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

And now for my news! I was selected to be one of the Sugar Babies for the Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge Blog organized by Korin, the Sugar Mama herself, whom is the owner of Sweet & Sassy Stamps! I am very excited about this...my first design team! Kind of funny now that I look back...I had set a goal to get published and get on a design team at the beginning of 2009 and I actually did both of them now. Wow that just hit me...that is just crazy because I had pretty much given up on the design team thing. Just goes to show that it is not our plan, but His! That is always a tough one for me. You can check out the announcement here. I would like to formally congratulate the other newbies on the team as well...so congrats to Audrey, Candace, Renata, and Julie...looking forward to working with you ladies as well as the current Design Team members! So look for my first Sketch Challenge post coming up here on Saturday!!

The Engineering Details
Stamps - A Beautiful Season (retired SU!), All Year Cheer I (retired SU!); Paper - Basic White (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Versamark, Real Red, More Mustard; Accessories - Black Embossing Powder, Blender Pen, 5/8" Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Square Nestabilities, Heat Gun

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Hot Chocolate Anyone?



Wow is this a crazy time of year or what?! I will freely admit that I have not been well organized (starting my Christmas cards in December for example), but man I swear I feel like I am barely staying afloat! I am getting lots done (and I have recorded it), but popping in here to show off has been very low on the priority list. Hoping that things have settled down here now: Christmas cards made and sent, cookies baked, teacher gifts made and given out, presents bought and almost all wrapped, some handmade gifts made and a few more to make. Now I am trying to get ready for hosting Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve...ahhh!

Anyway, the reason I am here is to show you a cool little gift that I made for my son's classmates for Christmas. Now I take absolutely no credit for the recipe or idea. I saw a blog entry from an amazing Mom, Amy, at The Idea Room (btw, if you want a place to get awesome ideas to do with the kids, get organized, etc, you NEED to follow her blog...how she does it I will never know, but I have gotten many awesome ideas from her!) for Hot Chocolate on a Stick. She got the idea from a fellow blogger, Amber, at the Giver's Log. Amber gives great instructions, so I will not repeat them here. I will say that I used Ghirardelli Baking Bars and I had a big difference in consistency turnout between the Semi-Sweet vs. Milk Chocolate. I have no idea why, but just thought I would note that, although it tasted great either way!


I made them and then put them in bags with some ribbon and a note for instructions. I decorated them very simply, mainly because I was short on time, but also because they were going to 4 year olds! But overall I thought they turned out cute...and let me tell you they are good! Just writing about them, makes me want one!! And just to give you the full effect of 22 yummy Hot Chocolate on a Sticks:









Now go make your own!!!