Just wanted to share a cute ornament I made last week --as well as a simple technique for making your standard white string into any color quickly and easily. First the ornament. I made 10 of these to trade in my paper ornament swap on ScrappersChallenge. I made 8 more as ATCs for my ATC December winter swap at our scrapbook store I made 12 more just a bit larger-sized into greeting cards with a different sentiment for the greeting card swap also at our local store. 30 total and now done! Done is good! Shown is the ATC sized Christmas ornament and the hang-string is coming out center top held in place at the top with the blue brad. First the ornament front : Techniques used on the front: Distress stain some white index weight cardstock in a couple blue stains. Emboss with a texture folder to add dimension. Crackle the whole ATC card with Tim Hotz crackle medium. Stamp text on with navy blue ink. Add decorative sturdy brad at top center with string under it on the backside. Stamp wordi...

Yes it was a very Mary Engelbreit weekend! So much fun! St Louis was tons of FUN! Let's start at the top. Friday: our first day My daughter and I were off on an adventure down to St Louis to attend a Mary Engelbreit Studios Home Companion Creative workshop ! I won the the two tickets for the November Workshop via a contest that Mary held on her site and blogs. If you haven't seen the new online website for Mary E and her art, check it out! Her son, Will, who looks to be about my own son's age, runs it and they intend to eventually have all her current products available there. Seriously cool. I flew from Minneapolis in the wee hours of the morning on Friday and Jenny flew from Pennsylvania. We got in at exactly the same time on different airlines and met at the airport. Yeh! Hug, hug, hug. Thanks to the kindness of our online friend, Vickie S, we were swept up and off to a delicious brunch at Miss Aimie B's Tea House in historic St Charles, Missouri. Isn't this b...