Cottage Lane Stamper

It's gotten me a little bit to get into the Christmas card making mode and right now I'm in a gnome mood. This set came out last year with the dies and then in the spring mini they came out with a spring set. I bought both sets and the dies go with both sets. They've been retired, which is too bad because they are so cute. I posted a gnome card the other day. This morning I woke up around 3 and couldn't get back to sleep so I thought I would play with the gnome sets again. I also used the retired paper for both cards as backgrounds and this first card I also used the dies to cut out three of the gnomes. I die cut the gnomes, the die cut some rectangles and layered those on card stock that coordinated with the gnomes hats. I used a little Night of Navy ribbon and layered it all on Night of Navy. I embellished them with some little snowflakes. The inside I stamped the Christmas greeting and another little gnome with a lantern. I also used an ink that was retired sev...

Well, as you may have read I have moved back to a German town in Minnesota, where I raised my children. It's a lovely little town and I am so glad that I moved back. Life is good. One of the traditions my family and I picked up, when we moved here, originally in 1990, was the German Christmas Pickle Ornament. It was always something my kids looked forward to on Christmas morning. We purchased this "pickle" in a wonderful shop they used to have here called The Christmas Store, where they had all things Christmas. The Christmas Store became an extension of the original gift shop (Lambrechts). Both shops are now closed an another owner has a gift shop that is similar to the original shop. Ironically the owner's mother lives across from me in my new apartment. But I digress. The tradition is, this pickle is hidden on the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and the first one who finds it on Christmas morning gets an extra Christmas present. Hmm I wonder if this is why ...