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Saturday, December 18, 2010

MPS Holiday Magic Blog Hop

Hello... Hello... and welcome to my stop in the MPS Holiday Magic Blog Hop! We are all so excited to see what everyone has created....  If you're travelling in blog hop order, you will have arrived here from visiting with Lee.  If you want to start from the beginning, take this moonbeam back to Michelle and start from there....the bloghop is runnin on USA time, so you may need to wait a little for all of the participants posts to pop up...

I couldn't decide what my favourite Christmas image was - I love all the Christmas Fairies and Winter Godesses.... so, instead, I created my card using the MPS image "Feel the Magic" ...

Ingredients: Cardstock - Rosies; Paper - Creative Memories; Pearls, Rhinestones - Kaisercraft; Ink - ColorBox, Button; Heart Rhinestones.

I haven't coloured the image at all.  I decorated it entirely with red pearls, diamond, holly green, and pea green rhinestones. The "i's" are dotted with hearts, so I added heart shaped rhinestones in place.  I matted the image on red, then on patterned green, then on red again, and added it all to the white cardbase.  The white layer has been edged in Antique Gold Ink, and the coloured layers have been edged in red. The beautiful red star button was already covered in silver glitter - how cool!  I just added double strands of paper ribbon, and tied a bow and secured it to the topper.  I added some silver glitter glue to the ribbon as well.

My Christmas revolves around my faith, my family, and food... they are always very special times, and we always have fond and teary memories of the friends and family who are no longer with us. We always donate clothes and gift items to local and overseas charities in the the months leading up to Christmas for those in need - this year our overseas items went to Papua New Guinea.  We also place gifts under the community trees that are distributed to those in need locally.  One of our faith tenets is that the best kind of charity is when you give to someone you don't know. 

My holiday magic I share with you is relived by remembering my one and only WHITE CHRISTMAS that I spent in 1994 in Vancouver, Canada.  Most of the world seems to forget that us countries in the southern hemisphere don't see cold or snow at Christmas, ever.... so it negates many Christmas songs about the same, leaving us only able to dream of the so popular snowy white Christmases with lavishings of hot dinners, nogs, and mulled wines.  But, while I was living in Canada, I had a real white Christmas, trimmed with all the classical Christmas sights, songs, suppers and treats of sleigh rides, seeing house lights in snow, skating ponds, the works.  I was travelling alone at the time, and the new friends that I had met a church I'd begun to attend invited me to Christmas with them, and they went all out to make it special for me.  It still rings true to me 16 years later, as if it happened yesterday. T'was quite an exciting season that year.... a Canadian Thanksgiving, a US Thanksgiving, and a Canadian Christmas!)  It was pure magic.

Thank you for visiting my blog .... please continue with the Holiday Magic Blog Hop by visiting with our Marilyn .... she's waiting for you!  Remember the steps you need to follow to have your chance of winning prizes along the way (all the instructions are in the 1st bloghop post here), and should you decide to spoil yourself, you can always pop into Michelle's etsy store and purchase some images (check out the beautiful new Christmas ones!). Enjoy the hop, enjoy the season, and enjoy the celebrations!

Merry Christmas!!

16 cared to share!:

Marion Kuipers-van Eijsden said...

Thanks for sharing your story with us all! I loved reading it. And your card is spectacular! Have a great Christmas time and a healthy and crafty 2011
xx

Marilyn Webb said...

Hi Pauline,
I loved your story. To me there is truly nothing like a white christmas. I am so glad you got to share one with us Canadians! Beautiful card!
hugs Marilyn

Andrea said...

What a beautiful card! I love white Christmases too, but I have grown to love the warm beach sand between your toes and Christmas day. :) Merry Christmas!

Kami Shalom said...

This card is absolutely lovely! It's so sparkly and festive, just perfect for the holidays.

Michelle said...

Pauline, what a wonderful post, and your card is just perfect for our blog hop theme and so beautifully embellished, I love the star! I loved your story about your special Christmas holiday! We dont get snow in CA either so I get homesick for New England this time of year!:) Thank you for your lovely blog hop post, Pauline!!

Holiday Hugs,

Michelle

Tammy said...

Gorgeous card Pauline! I love all of the bling! Such a wonderful white Christmas story!! I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!
Hugs, Tammy

Rhonda Miller said...

What a great card. I love all the bling. Thanks for sharing your Christmas magic.

Hugs, Rhonda

She's a Color Queen said...

I really like all the beautiful embellishments. It's a awesome card!

grandmalee said...

Thanks for sharing your holiday magic with us! Your card is beautiful with all of the bling on it!

Maria Matter said...

lovely post Pauline!

what a gorgeous card...I love this style...all bling'd out too, just perfect!
hugs & blessings!

Unknown said...

I love your post Pauline. Those are great holiday memories. I hope you have a great Christmas!

THERESA said...

Stunning card and love the story, oh , i would love to see a white christmas, we in SA have summer now and rarely ever see snow, only high up in the mountains, sometimes..........lol

Charlene said...

Thanks for sharing your story with us. You were actually very lucky to have snow that year lol. I live about an hour east of Vancouver and we don't get snow that often, but I am so happy for you that is snowed that year and you had a Christmas here to remember. Your card is so beautiful and it is so unique in that you only decorated it with embellishments and no coloring! May you have a Very Merry and Blessed Christmas season.

Ellis said...

Beautiful card and thanks for sharing your story! =)
Hugs, Elenor

http://www.metrobloggen.se/paltbarn

Jan Hunnicutt said...

Hi Pauline! I love what you've done with this image, your card is beautiful! I enjoyed reading about your Christmas inspiration too.

Lillian Child said...

What a festive card! VERY creative! Thanks for sharing and happy holidays to you and yours!

I've just discovered your blog on this hop and am now a follower. So nice to meet you!

http://lillianchild.blogspot.com