The Eve of Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!  I will be posting my Winter Fruit Salad recipe a little bit later.  It's a wonderful recipe that my kids (and everyone else) just love.  So check back this afternoon for that. 

I keep mentioning the holiday houses that I've been making this season.  Well, with the hustle and bustle of the season, I didn't get to make as many as I thought I would.  That's okay, because this template will lend itself to many occasions, not just Christmas. 

So, here they are:

This is the first house I made using Lauren Meader's Homemade house template and stamp set (PaperTrey).  Being the first one, I went hog-wild on the decorations.  Paper is DCWV and I used all kinds of punches from Martha Stewart (gotta love MS punches). 

Here's another view of this little gingerbread house.  I forgot to mention that the roof lifts off to allow for goodies inside.  I just love this house!

Now that I had confidence in constructing these structures, I proceeded to create a cabin retreat for my friend Ali.  She and her family are building a cabin in the Sierras, so I knew she would love this.  I stamped strips of Creamy Caramel with the Weathered BG stamp for siding and used "styrosoft" for the snow.  The wreath was cut with another MS punch and I used my Nesties for the house sign. 

Here's a view from the back.  Notice the chimney.  I had some texture paint leftover from one of my son's school projects that I used to make the chimney look like stone. 

This is the last little house I made, and in keeping with my love of all things that woof, I had to make a dog house.  This is for a friend of my daughter, who just got a puppy.  I just used the template base and roof pieces for this.  I punched strips with the SU Scallop Edge punch and adhered to the roof for shingles.  The opening to the doghouse was created by using the backside of one of the door stamps from the Homemade stamp set.  How cool is it that you can use the back side of acrylic stamps?  I had some DP with paw prints (unknown manufacturer) in my paper stash, just dying to be used for this project.   Lastly, I used the MS icicle punch to make the grass, and a bone punch to make bones to scatter around.  We filled this with dog treats and a toy for Rocky.

I'm sure there will be more houses in my future.  I'm thinking Valentine's Day. 

Will be back later this afternoon with that fantastic salad recipe,