Russian Teacake Cookies

Growing up as kids, I have memories of my mom baking Christmas cookies, and my sister and I would help mix the dough, shape the cookies and bake them. In fact, we even had our own mini-bake ovens. Today, I still enjoy baking Christmas Cookies. One of my favorites of all time is probably
Russian teacake cookies. Nothing compares to homemade cookies.

For this CSI challenge (220) I used stripes, flowers, ribbon, and a decorative border (lace). I journaled about my favorite Christmas cookie, the Russian teacake, homemade, of course.

The original challenge file:

Presents:

That's the best part of Christmas, at least it was as a child. I remember the anticipation, wondering what was in the wrapped presents. Then trying to figure it out by shaking them. Now, it's fun spending time with family and watching my family and niece open presents.

For Csi 219:
I scrapbooked some pictures from Christmas 2015. These are of my sister, her husband, and my niece. We all got together for a Christmas Day: Breakfast, Presents, reading the bible, and Christmas Dinner.

For this challenge, I used snowflakes (glitter and stenciled) ribbon, holiday decoration (pine branches and wrapped present), and journaled about my family celebrating Christmas.

Background paper is Heidi Swapp.
Flower is Prima (colored with green glimmer mist
Pine Branches are die cut from a Cheery Lynn die
Ribbon is Craft Narrows (from Michaels.)
Faux stitching was done Sakura Glaze pen.

Thanksgiving

Had a lovely Thanksgiving, spent with family. We had dinner together with all the fixings: turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, and pumpkin pie for dessert. After Thanksgiving, I got to work on the latest CSI Challenge: 218.

For this one, I incorporated all the colors, and circles, dots, and metal (staples). I used a little ink and stenciling to create the background on the yellow paper. (Additionally, there is a bow up top.) And journaled about the outdoors, in this case it is about a photo I took in the city of Chicago, when my cousin came up to Chicago to visit over Labor Day. We got to explore some different areas in downtown Chicago. In this picture, there is a wonderful view of The Willis Tower (formerly, the Sears Tower) and the surrounding Chicago skyline.

Fall Color

In fall, I just love taking walks. In my area, there are so many trees that change pretty colors. I created this CSI layout to highlight some of the beauty I have seen in various spots, including Busse Woods.

This is for the CSI 217 challenge: I used all colors for the scheme. For the evidence I used wood grain, heat embossing, leaves and an animal.
For testimony, I documented something about autumn. Journaling reads: Leaves changing color, pretty fall flowers, and squirrels hunting and gathering. Busse Woods to the front lawn: just a few of the sights I have seen, hiking this fall.

To create the layout, I covered some cardstock with gesso, then used prima watercolor oil pastels to color the background. Then added some modeling paste with a wood grain stencil and finally added a little highlighting with gold pearls.

The 2 gold leaves at the bottom were heat embossed with gold embossing powder, and the wood veneer "Live" was heat embossed with green embossing powder. The owl is an American crafts sticker. And created the cluster (at left with a variety of stickers, color me crazy leaves and petaloo butterfly. The little journaling spots were from a prima 6x6 paper pack (epiphany).

Hope you all are enjoying this fall as much as I am.

My layout was chosen as star witness for CSI 217. Be sure to check out the CSI website: 

http://csichallenge.blogspot.com/