Christmas Elves

With my grandsons 3000 miles away, I decided to celebrate the holiday season in a new way...a daily "advent mailing".  I had originally planned to send them the advent tree I made last week (here), but decided it would be too much to try to mail.  So instead I'm doing LOTS of mailings!  Sometimes I just don't know what gets into me...

I have a bunch of small gifts and will be sending something every day.  And of course I HAVE to decorate them all, right?

For the 4th day, I'm sending them some holiday PEZ dispensers.  But look what I did to make them extra special:

I created little elves to add to the packaging.  Aren't they cute?

I saw the elf hat idea on Becky Roberts' blog.  Remember this Santa hat?  Well, this is pretty much the same idea, but instead of just the hat, I added a face.

The Tree Punch without the trunk made the hat.  Then I used the 1-1/4" circle punch with some Blushing Bride card stock, and added ears punched from the Bird Punch.  The eyes are from my 1/4" handheld punch, the nose is punched from the Owl Punch and I drew the mouth with my Project Life Journaling Pen.

It's all put together on a clothespin (on sale now in the OnLine Extravaganza), and then I clipped it to my PEZ dispensers.

I think the kids will get a chuckle out of them.  Don't you?

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Jake for Jake (huh?)

Well, today's the day.  If you read my post (here), you know that I'm about to have a major change in my life.  Two of my grandsons (and their parents) are moving to Maryland, 3000 miles away from me.  And today is the day we get to say good-bye.  Although I'm excited for them, I'm really feeling sad for me.

I keep trying to tell myself that "what goes around comes around"--I moved from New York, where I grew up, to California after graduating from college.  It was not my intent to stay here; my plan was to let my husband finish his studies and then take us both back to the east coast.  But life got in the way, and soon we were working, bought a house, and started having kids.  And before we knew it, we'd made a life for ourselves on the west coast, 3000 miles away from my parents.  And I've spent 40 years traveling back and forth.  I'd always hoped that one day I wouldn't have to make that trip, but I guess it's my destiny.  Sigh...

So today is our last hurrah, for now.  And since my grandson, Jake, is having a birthday on November 10th, we won't be with him to celebrate.  So I'm throwing him a little party today.  He'll be three.

Jake and big brother, Ethan, like "Jake and the Never Land Pirates".  I decided to try my hand at punch art for the first time, and here's the card I created:

I used some of my retired stash, so please forgive me, but it just went with the theme.

"Jake" was created using the old Ornament Punch for his face, scarf and the base for his hair (which I snipped with my Paper Snips).  His eyebrows and mouth are 3/4" circle punches and his eyes are from the Owl Punch and the 1/4" Circle Punch.  His arms are the Word Window Punch (I really need a lesson on drawing hands, but I think my Jakie will get the idea).

 His body and white shirt are 1-3/8" square punches, and I used the Tree Punch to make the little snip in his shirt.  The vest is also the square punch, snipped in half, and the corners used for the collar.

I stamped Hardwood on Early Espresso and then adhered letters cut with my Big Shot and a retired alphabet die.

This card is large--4-1/2" x 6-1/2"; I used Whisper White Thick cardstock for the base and a piece of retired DSP on top.

Fortunately there's the Envelope Punch Board to help me with the envelope--a perfect size, using more of the retired DSP.

A labor of love, but I'm pretty pleased with the results; I hope my little Jake enjoys his Jake card!

Here's my boy:

Don't know how I'm going to get through the day...

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