For: Santa and Rudolph

Hi, everyone!

Can you believe it's been an entire year of W2SB challenges?! It sure has been a whole lot of fun! Before getting to this month's card, I want to thank those who have been instrumental in making this first year possible.

• My partner-in-crime Bobbi,
• Our amazing I-Teamers,
• All of you who have played along with us this year, including our wonderful Guest I-Teamers, and
• Our wonderful Sponsors and Friends.

Thank you all so much for a wonderful first year.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry!

Last month, I wrote a little about Mom. I think of her so often this time of year. She absolutely loved the holidays... and did everything possible to fill our home with a joyous spirit. 

What I best remember about Mom's holiday preparations is the time she spent baking Christmas cookies. Mom's birthday was December 17, and she spent her birthday week baking dozens and dozens of cookies. Mom would make two or three different types each day. I still remember the pure joy of coming home from school with my brother to freshly-baked cookies. While I didn't realize it until years later, I'm sure she saved our favorite types as the last batches she would make each day. To me, nothing will ever mean Christmas more than her homemade cookies.  

So, Mom, today's card is for you -- and will be included in the Christmas package hubby and I send to my brother and his family. Its sentiment is from a holiday decoration I found at a Pennsylvania craft store: Christmas Cookies and Holiday Hearts... That's the Way the Season Starts.

Echo Park Christmas This & That; Distress Ink core; Stampin' Up neutral core
Elizabeth Dulemba artwork for cookie outlines
Digitcrafts artwork (found on Pinterest) for carrot outline
Spellbinders nestabilities scalloped circle die; Creative Memories circle cutting system
inking and accents with various Distress Inks; computer-generated "For" tag
candies: punched from Reminisce peppermint candies with SU owl builder punch
ornaments: Wendy Vecchi embossing paste; Recollections glitter;
Elizabeth Craft Design silver embossing powder; Glossy Accents
sentiment: Christmas Cookies and Holiday Hearts... That's the Way the Season Starts

Thanks to Jennifer McGuire for her
suggestion to use ice cream sampling
spoons to apply glitter.  :)

I have to confess that these cookies were quite an undertaking. I started using the outlines of Elizabeth Dulemba's coloring-book-pages cookies to cut out shapes from Distress Ink antique linen. I inked the edges to give the "cookies" a baked look. Next, I "iced the cookies" with embossing paste and sprinkled them with (red and green) glitter and (silver) embossing powder. I thought I  could handle the glitter -- which is normally banned from the menopause room for OWH reasons. However, when I  just couldn't deal with it any longer, I "sealed the cookies" with a coat of Glossy Accents. Take my word for it, these are some pretty substantial cookies -- much thicker than Mom's cookies.  :)

Hope the card brings back lots and lots of warm and fuzzy Christmas memories to my brother.

This Month's Prize

In addition to our W2SB Winner Badge and an offer to join us as a Guest I-Teamer in February, the winner of this month's challenge will receive a couple of fun My Favorite Things stamps.

So, here's wishing you and your loved ones the jolliest of holidays and the merriest of Christmases.

As always, thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!