One Last December Stamp of the Month Idea and the Twins Birthday Bash

With today being the last day of December (and the year!), I wanted to do a quick reminder of the 3 specials that are only available through 11:59 pm (MST) tonight on my website.  I've also got another great idea to share with the December Stamp of the Month (see #2 below). Keep on readin'!

By the way, if you are interested in seeing the pictures I promised of the twins' birthday bash, they are at the very end of this post.






3 December Specials:
1.  Whooo's Your Valentine
2.  December Stamp of the Month
3.  FREE gift!
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1.  Whooo's Your Valentine:    You may or may not know that January is National Papercrafting Month.  Since we at Close To My Heart love to party, we are celebrating a bit early. Our National Papercrafting Month Special ("Whooo's Your Valentine") began on December 13 and runs through January 31.  Yippee! 

Spend $35 (either on my website or by contacting me: 801.360.9896, pedermom@aol.com) and get the exclusive "Whoo's Your Valentine" treat tube kit for only $10 (valued at $40)!

The kit includes:

• 12 die-cut boxes

• 3 cardstock sheets

• 1 sheet of silver glitter paper (so pretty!)

• 12 treat tubes

• An exclusive D-size stamp set created specifically for the kit!  (see below)
  
  

  

  Whooo's Your Valentine Exclusive Stamp Set (carrier sheet actual size is 6" x 6")

   

These little goodies are perfect for gifts and classroom projects. The "Whooo’s Your Valentine" kit will make Valentine’s Day a cinch! If ordering on my website, you will get a prompt at the end of your order to add it. Easy Peasy!

2.  December Stamp of the Month:  I know I have already shared a few things about this special, but the coolest part of all is that if you spend $50, you qualify for the December Stamp of the Month at $5 ($17.95 value) AND it will also qualify you for the "Whooo's Your Valentine" kit for only $10. That means you would spend $65 ($50 order + $5 Stamp of the Month + $10 "Whooo's Your Valentine" kit + a FREE gift (see #3 below) if you order on my website) and have $112.90 in merchandise. That's about a 58% savings.  Nifty!  The December Stamp of the Month is a great set!  

I have now shown you all 12 cards that I made with the December Stamp of the Month.  I hope you have enjoyed them all!  Today, I thought I'd share a photo of all 12 of them together (see the top of this post) as well as a GREAT idea of how to use this awesome set.

We carry a great little tool that every mother, grandmother, or aunt and uncle  person needs. It's called an Event Calendar (item #Z126, $8.50). It looks like this:

It includes a page for each month of the year and  measures 4" across and 18" in height. As you can see, January is shown above. There is a space for each date in January. In those spaces, you would write things like: Andrea and Scott's Anniversary (1991), Livvi and Street's Birthday (2012), etc.  There is a page like this for every month. This little gem will last forever and guarantee that you don't forget a single important birthday, anniversary, etc. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Why is she showing me this?"  The answer is simple: Because it is perfect to use with this month's Stamp of the Month.  Just take the cards I have shared this month, create them yourself in a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" format (my cards were 4" x 4", so it's easy to just downsize a bit) and they are the perfect size for the top of each month of this event calendar.  Or, even better, create some toppers of your own with the December Stamp of the Month. The ideas and options for each little stamp are endless. Here's a page of the one I put together to illustrate:

Karen's January page of her Event Calendar.  I just added a topper made with the December Stamp of the Month to each page and then randomly stamped a coordinating stamp over the date portion of the page to tie it all together. It's ready to add dates!

Don't you love it?  This little puppy is a great post-Christmas gift to yourself to help you reach that New Year's resolution we all have of getting more organized, as well as a wonderful Mother's Day gift for your mom and even your mother-in-law in May.  Again, buying those now and getting them done would ALSO help you reach that "be more organized" goal!
 
 

December Stamp of the Month: carrier sheet actual size is 6" x 6"

3.  FREE Gift:  As a reminder, if you spend $50 or more on my website this month, you get this awesome glue pen absolutely FREE ($4.95 value)!  So, my advice to you is to take advantage of all 3 of these specials on my website and you get the advantages of all of them.  Using my website is the key because this FREE glue pen only comes with website orders. 

Now that we've got all of the business out of the way, I had to post some photos from the DARLING "Thing 1 and Thing 2" birthday party my daughter threw for the twins on Saturday.  Enjoy!

Rick did all of the piping on the cakes and cupcakes!  A multi-talented son-in-law I have!

Of course we made sure that we matched the wrapping to the party them too!

It was kind of hard to get a good photo of the darling banner Kori made (using CTMH products, of course) because it was on the window, but hopefully your imagination can do the rest.

Kori and Livvi

Kori and Street

Easton and Daysha lovin' in Livvi

Grandpa Dan-the-Man with Street. Street was more than a little nervous about the whole party idea.

Kori with her twins

The twins while we sang "Happy Birthday"

Daci getting into the party mood. Yes, she decided to dress as Snow White.

My kiddos. I asked them for just one cute photo of all of them together and this is what I get (l-r): Easton looking more than a little goofy, Daysha standing on her tip toes trying not too look quite as short with all of these tall people, Tannon and Dawson hugging since they have no spouses (they thought that was hilarious), Dawson being a goofball, and Kori and Rick being nice about the whole photo thing. You can tell which 2 people in this photo have children of their own and understand how much mommies want cute photos of their kids. You can also tell the 4 who do not.

Livvi and Street with their smash cakes. Livvi was enthralled. Street was afraid.

Two More December Stamp of the Month Cards and Happy Birthday, Easton!

Happy December 30! That also means it's my favorite oldest son's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Easton! You stole my heart the day you were born and have never given it back. I love you so very much! I am sharing a few photos of Easton today in his birthday honor, but first I have a few more December Stamp of the Month cards to share.  Enjoy!

Of course you saw the one at the top of the post, which uses the stamp in the December Stamp of the Month set that honors October.  This next one is with the stamp that honors November. 

Also, be sure to check out all 3 December specials here, and then head to my website to take advantage of them here.

And here are a few detail shots of both cards:

And, I can't forget to post a scan of the stamp set:

December Stamp of the Month: available for only $5 with a $50 order, through December 2012 only.

Here are a few photos of my "little" boy, Easton! Happy 24th, my son!

Stay tuned tomorrow for some fun photos from the amazing birthday bash that my daughter, Kori and her hubby, Rick threw for their twins last night. WOW!

Back to School Card, December Specials, and Birthday Excitement

Here is yet another card with the wonderful December Stamp of the Month.  I have to post every day through December to fit the rest in! I  hope you are enjoying these little puppies.  There are THREE specials that you can take advantage of through the rest of December. Click here to read about them.  Hint:  Spend $65 and get $112.90 in products! Click here to go to my website and order!

I'm extra excited today because while Kori and Rick and their little family are here, we are having a 1-year birthday party for the twins. It is a few weeks early, but I'm so glad they decided to have it while they are here in Utah with both sets of grandparents and all of the aunts and uncles here to enjoy it too.  Kori decided to go with a "Thing 1 and Thing 2" theme for the party from Cat in the Hat. That is what the twins were for Halloween, so she decided it would be fitting for their first birthday too.  I can't wait to see what she has done tonight for the party.  She really goes all out for her kids' birthdays.  Here is a photo of the 3 grandkids on Halloween.  Like I said, they went with a Cat in the Hat theme:  Daci was the Cat in the Hat and the twins were Thing 1 and Thing 2. Too cute!  I'll have to share photos and ideas from the party in my post tomorrow or the next day. Stay tuned... 

A BBQ Card and Recent Holiday Photos

How have your holidays been?  I hope just perfect!   Ours couldn't have been more perfect. It was so great having EVERYONE home for Christmas!  I'll share some photos (warning: this post is FULL of photos), but before I do, I have another card to share that I made with the December Stamp of the Month.  If you haven't been following me all month, be sure to scroll back through my December posts to see lots more cards made with this awesome set.

Also, there are 3 (yep! 1,2,3!) specials in December and there are still a few days to be able to take advantage of all 3. Yesterday's post spells them all out for you. I hope you'll read it if you haven't yet.  Hint:  Spend $65 and get $112.90 in products! You can take advantage of all 3 on my website. December is drawing to a close so be sure to take advantage of them soon!

 

Now, on to some of my favorite Christmas memories from this year. Most of these photos are from Christmas Eve. I think I love it more than Christmas day.  Our family has some fun Christmas Eve traditions. We made sugar cookies and frost them. We have a dinner of homemade chicken-noodle soup and breadsticks, we do a spiritual family night and the we open one gift (pajamas, of course).  This year, we spent Christmas Eve at my parents' home with my sisters and their families. It was even more fun with all of these people!

Daci and I baking the cookies at my house

Sour cream sugar cookies: our family favorite.

You can find my sour cream sugar cookie and frosting recipe here. 

My mom, Nedra and sister, Andrea

My dad, LeRoy..stirring the soup (and a bit surprised by my photo)

Daci and Daysha being their silly selves

Easton, Kori and Dawson frosting their cookies

Dan-the-Man...eating the cookies. I think he slapped some frosting on and didn't even bother to decorate that one! :)

Frosting cookies with cousins (in Santa hats)

Daci frosting her cookies

Tannon getting serious about his cookie

Some of our finished masterpieces. 

We even had a cookie contest this year. Everyone made a cookie for the contest and Grandpa and Grandma Overstreet (my parents) judged. Here is Kori with her cookie for the contest.

Kori and Rick enjoying some alone time on the couch while they had plenty of babysitters for Daci and the twins

Daci concentrating very hard on the cookie she is decorating

Daci and I during cookie decorating time

Christmas Eve dinner after cookie decorating

Tannon and Dawson just chillin'

Street found some toys

After dinner, getting ready for our spiritual family night

Time for Christmas Eve presents!

We go youngest to oldest for this tradition. Street went first (since he is the youngest by 9 minutes)

Livvi was next.  The little ones got books with their pj's.

Then Daci

Dawson opening his

Tannon laughing at someone. Hmmmm. This year we got our boys sweat pants and t-shirts for their Christmas Eve pj's.  They are just not pj wearers so much anymore. They loved that!

Daysha with her jammies.  Kori and I love silky jammies so we got Daysha some this year. When she opened them she exclaimed, "My first pair of silky jammies!" Welcome to the silky jammie club, Daysh!

Easton with his pj's

Rick with his

Rick and Street celebrating in their new pj's

Here are a couple photos from Christmas morning. I am so bad at remembering to take Christmas morning photos. It just gets so busy and I find myself in the moment and forget to pick up the camera. I took quite a few this year though.  Even with all of that I forgot to take photos of our traditional Christmas morning breakfast. Ugh!  We have German Pancakes, fruit and yogurt, sausage and bacon, and Pedersen slush (recipe here).  Next time I make German Pancakes, I'll try to remember to take a photo and share the recipe with you.  One year I might just remember to take photos of everything. Odds are probably not.

Christmas morning: Tannon really was much more excited than it appears with his new Beats by Dr. Dre

Dan-the-Man and his brand, new hunting shirt

Yes, Dawson has a thing for Transformers.  Thanks to Tannon for helping me get this shirt made for Dawson.

My sister, Andrea gave me a penguin blanket.  I have collected penguins since 5th grade. I was pretty excited about this!

I hope your holidays were merry and bright!