Hello Friends!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have recovered from the self-induced food coma that inadvertently follows the Thanksgiving meal! Our Thanksgiving was extra special this year. My son, Adam, who’s a cowboy in Nevada, called me Wednesday morning just to chat. During the course of our conversation he mentioned that he was driving on icy roads. I asked him where he was headed and his reply was, “To see you!” This momma instantly got teary, as it’s been several years since he’s been able to join us for Thanksgiving, or any holiday for that matter! What a fantastic surprise that was! It’s been too long time since I’ve had all three of my beautiful kids home together under the same roof! Yes, Thanksgiving was truly a day to give thanks!
I love the holidays and I love cooking for family and friends. As usual, I told myself I’d keep it simple this year, stick to the tried and true recipes. But…what fun is THAT? I love trying new recipes and always manage to throw in something NEW and untried when large gatherings are anticipated! This year was no exception!
Dean wanted to smoke our turkey(s) this year which left me with a dilemma… What would I do about GRAVY? Thanksgiving REQUIRES mashed potatoes and gravy, right? So to the internet I turned and found a “Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy”. Perfect! The recipe called for 6 turkey wings which are then roasted in order to get the drippings for making gravy. I thought sure, why not; turkey wings are SURELY super cheap, right? I mean, who would buy turkey wings after all – they’re not exactly the prime piece of turkey! Well, was I ever in for a surprise! I ended up paying $5 per turkey wing (x6)! The recipe said I would yield about 8 cups of gravy…NOT! I followed the directions to the “T”, using 2 quarts of chicken broth, and even throwing in an extra cup of “Better Than Bouillon”. All said, I only ended up with about 4 cups of turkey gravy. Thankfully it turned out to be enough, but that gravy ended up costing about $35! It was delicious, however, and received several compliments! Note to self… next time use chicken wings/thighs/drums which ARE cheap – pretty sure nobody would know the difference!
I also elected to try a new corn casserole this year. For years now, our Thanksgiving dinners have included a type of creamed-corn casserole that we affectionately call “Landon’s Corn”, as my nephew, Landon, absolutely went nuts over this corn when he was a little boy (he’s now 32)! Given the Covid concerns this year, we didn’t do our usual huge family gathering and I elected to try something different with the corn, since Landon wasn’t going to be there anyway. Thankfully the new corn casserole was delicious also and will now go into the Thanksgiving meal repertoire! I think Landon will approve of this one too, once we’re able to gather in large groups again!
At any rate, my crafting time has been minimal the last few weeks between cattle and Thanksgiving. We finally bought the last of our cattle a week ago – our herd is now complete! Unfortunately, a few of them have started coughing so the round-up of the coughers ensued with treatment of antibiotics. There’re still a few looking a bit droopy today, so we’re keeping a close eye on them and will treat with antibiotics again if needed!
I decided to make “just one more curve” before I move onto some of the other new items in the upcoming catalog! Today’s card is a quick and easy Christmas card using the Christmas Curvy stamp set and Curvy dies. It also features the Classic Christmas DSP which is only orderable NOW during the pre-release, as is the Christmas Curvy stamp set! Neither of these items will be in the new catalog, or orderable, once the new catalog goes live on January 5! If you’re interested in either, order NOW while you can!
LET’S GET INKY!
Materials:
Stamp sets:
- Christmas Curvy
- Wrapped In Christmas (inside sentiment)
Paper:
- Classic Christmas DSP in Crumb Cake and Shaded Spruce (5 1/4″ x 3 1/2″)
- Whisper White CS (8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ – card base)
- Shaded Spruce CS ( 5 1/4″ x 4″ – inside mat, & scrap for leaf dies)
Ink:
- Cherry Cobbler
- Tuxedo Black Memento
- Bumblebee
Accessories:
- Curvy Dies
- Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Blends
- Bumblebee Stampin’ Marker
- Wink of Stella glitter pen
LET’S PUT IT TOGETHER!
- Cut a piece of the Shaded Spruce and a piece of the Crumb Cake DSP to 5 1/4″ x 3 1/2″
- Stack the two pieces of DSP and use the Curvy Die at about the two-thirds point, to create the upper and lower DSP pieces for card front.
- Adhere the top and bottom pieces to the Whisper White card front, leaving space in the middle for sentiment.
- Stamp the sentiment from Christmas Curvy in Cherry Cobbler, aligning at the left border.
- Stamp three stars to the left of the sentiment in Bumblebee ink.
- Stamp the curvy stars stamp across the top, following the curve of the paper, using black ink.
- Color stars with Bumblebee Stampin’ Marker.
- Stamp the bow image with black ink, onto a scrap of Whisper White CS.
- Color with Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Blends and then color over with Wink of Stella to give a glittery sheen.
- Fussy cut bow with snips.
- Use the leaves die in Curvy Dies to crop a couple leaf sprigs from Shaded Spruce CS.
- Adhere leaf sprigs to card front and place bow in center to cover ends.
- For the inside panel, stamp the “shooting stars” stamp across the top, followed by the sentiment from Wrapped in Christmas, in black ink. Use the “Merry Christmas” stamp, from Curvy Christmas, stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink under the sentiment.
- Adhere white panel to Shaded Spruce mat and adhere all to inside of card base.
DONE!
Product List
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