The Christmas village and The Sampler Challenge #1

Welcome to the Christmas village - this is Stewart Lane (little houses from Martha Stewart at KMart several years ago)

This is the Russian Orthodox Church (a fabulous thrift shop find for $1 a couple of years ago) with its creche (from an import store) and the mansion on the hill (gift from a friend).

overhead view - Dan gave me the train station and one of the churches several years ago, the Santa and sleigh came from my in-laws long ago - you can't see it in this photo but down behind the mansion on the hill is another cottage nestled in some trees. And the building to the far left is a church that I bought a couple of weeks ago at Marshall's - what is really cool about it is how much like the vintage Putz houses it is - so fragile. We had some of the Putz houses and a church with paper like stained glass in the windows when I was growing up - I have watched them on ebay for several years but just too much. Anyway, I usually put the houses under the tree but then I saw Alicia's posting again this year for her village so I was really inspired http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2009/12/heartshaped-moon.html Dan has gotten interested in improving the village next year and has been making some plans on how to structure it better and put some lights under it. He wants me to paint a backdrop of hills and mountains (sort of North Carolina style) and then we will hang some some cool snowflake ornaments from the ceiling. Through Alicia's blog, I found several sites with house plans and instructions so I downloaded them - I hope to make at least one house this week. It's always something.........

This is a layout I did for the first challenge for The Sampler kit http://www.scrapbookingsuppliesrus.com/blog/article/recent/?blog_id=10001

the challenge is to use 5 photographs in a layout and of course, use items from the December kit - I guess you know by now that I don't do multi-photo layouts but it is good to get out of your box so here it is. I used Basic Grey patterned paper, Core dinations card stock (it's awesome!), Prima flowers sprayed with Stickles, 2 kinds of pink paislee alphas, and ribbon - all from the kit. Be sure to check out the blog - you can see more layouts and cards by the other DT members and by me.

Today it's quite warm and muggy - we had a front go down over us the last few days so it cooled off a little and we had a little rain but last night it backed up over us so now it's bright sunny, humid, and warm. Most of our neighbors have their Christmas lights up now and the neighbors right behind us had a big party last night - they lit their outdoor firepit and were singing The 12 Days of Christmas among other things - so funny!

The county golf course where Dan volunteers is not having a holiday party this year due to the economy and all the cuts in local government spending and the bank that was going to sponsor a holiday thank you party for all of the library, gift shop, and book store volunteers also backed down. Signs of the times.........

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday and a great week - I will post some more layouts from the Sampler this week and next Sunday I will be posting on both the Sampler blog and on the Harlee-Quinnz blog so lots to do.......

and don't forget to get us your layout, project, whatever to http://whatisyourfavething.blogspot.com/ what's your favorite holiday by tomorrow - a new challenge will be up on the 15th, and be sure to check out the elf cards at the top of the blog - so funny!!!! I bet you didn't know that I could dance like that - maybe I should go on Dancing with the Stars!!!!!!!!!

thanks for reading and ttfn