What a year! What a month!

Earlier this year I moved from the province of Alberta out to the west coast. This was my first Christmas here on the Sunshine Coast. And it was a wet one. The rain did let up a bit on Christmas Day, which was good as I was in charge of 12 dogs here at the Mountain and Wave Dog Resort. We were able to spend some time outside in the afternoon. When it started getting dark, we headed inside for nap time.

This is in the huge dog room. There are dog beds covering the floor as well as various pieces of furniture for the dogs to relax on.

They don't look like it in these photos, but they were actually a pretty lively bunch! It was fun to spend the day with dogs and a welcome break from my job. Yes, I now have a job. After a 4-month break I decided it was time to go back to work. I am a part-time cashier at a very, very busy pharmacy. I started on Halloween. The whole month of December has been extremely busy and I had to work the 23rd, 24th and 26th.

Also, one of my sisters and her husband made the move out here at the beginning of Dec. Other family members came out to visit and help them get settled in. Needless to say, I haven't had a lot of time for stamping or blogging!

Just want to share one of my few Christmas projects - a gift bag, sometimes called a Bag-a-lope, made from a large business size envelope. This is a technique I love to demonstrate at workshops.

Here's what I used for the envelope:

Stamps: En Francais background stamp, Bells and Boughs

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla

For the card;

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Always Artichoke

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Deck the Halls DSP

Now it's time to focus on spring projects. There are some delightful stamps, DSP and embellishments in the new Occasions Mini Catalogue which is coming out January 4. Later in the month, starting January 25, it's Sale-a-Bration time! This is a great time to earn fabulous FREE stamp sets!!

In the meantime, have a Very Stamping Day!