Merry Christmas!!!

Ok, I know I haven't posted much, but I have been crafting, I promise!! Here's what I've been up to with the Cricut cartridges noted:

Making tags:

Winter Frolic Penguin - LOVE penguins this year!

Winter Frolic Deer to match my $1 Target pail

Making ornaments with my girls:

All ornaments (above and below) were made with the new product, Glitter It (grabbed mine at Hobby Lobby)

and white Cricut vinyl.

Thanks Momo, for the great snowman ornament idea!!!

My kids had a blast making these and are so proud of them!

Making Snowman soup kits:

Snowman from Christmas Cheer

And making MORE tags:

Gingerbread Man from Jolly Holidays, Penguin & Snowflake from Winter Frolic

Ornament from Winter Frolic

So, now you know what I've been up to in addition to the many holiday outings of the season. I have had so many photos to edit!! Of course, I've been hanging out on blogs a lot, too. There has been some great ideas out there! Thanks to all of you for your inspiration as always!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2011! I will be riding the rails to beautiful Colorado next week, so I will be back to tending my blog in the New Year! Blessings to you all!!

Reindeer Anti-Bac Holders!

Yikes!! Only 1 week left!! So much to do, so much to do . . .

I finally got around to making the cute anti-bac holders that I first saw on Tammy's Scrappy Critters blog at Halloween time!

First I started with these cute 1 oz anti-bacterial hand gels from Bath & Body Works:

Then I followed directions at Jan's Stamping Creations blog (thank you, Jan!!) to make the holders. The only thing I did not follow from Jan was using the oval punch. I did not have the right one, so I used my Creative Memories oval cutting system instead.

I used the following supplies:

• Reindeer from the Cricut cartridge, Create-A-Critter
• K & Company's Secret Santa 12x12 double-sided designer paper
• "Merry Christmas" from Ki Memories Clear Stamp set
• "Happy Holidays" from Stampin' Up's Warmest Regards Set
• Red, tan, ivory, brown, hunter green & black cardstock
• Red Stickles (girl reindeer's flower and Rudolph's nose)
• Stampin' Up Sticky Strip Adhesive (to hold boxes together)

 

I loved how easy these were to make and how cute they turned out! I'm going to add a gift card to the inside cover to complete a couple of pre-teen gifts.

Happy last week of prepping everyone!

Chapel Buddy Christmas Treat Bags

Phew! What a week it has been! I am SO HAPPY it's finally the weekend!! My work has been so busy and now with preparing for the holidays, I am running both day and night!! I had my daughters' Christmas band concert, my work Christmas party, and a mom party all this past week, and throughout the week I was sneaking out getting shopping in when I could. So again, PHEW!

I've managed to get a little crafting in lately, though. Tonight I finished off these treat bags for my daughters' chapel buddies at school. We remembered those adorable Kindergarten and 2nd graders for Halloween, so how could we not do something for Christmas?? Here they are:

I assembled these treat bags with the help of my Target and JoAnn stores. The treat bags and pencils are from Target's dollar section, and the candy canes are from their holiday section. I also added Gingerbread kid shaped notebooks and necklace kits from JoAnn's dollar section. Gotta love those dollar sections! They get me EVERY time!

I made these simple bag toppers using my red cardstock, a stapler, my decorative corkscrew scissors, the gingerbread kid from Cricut Jolly Holidays, wiggly eyes and Stickles (for the buttons). I just love the Jolly Holidays cartridge!! There are so many cute images on it.

Okay, I do have more to post, but as my wonderful friend, Bonnie in Louisiana would say, it's time to head to the mattress ball! I have a serious date with my pillow. :)

Have a good, productive weekend all!

Christmas Card 2010

I'm one of "those" people. You know, one that just HAS to be the first Christmas card that arrives to their recipients? Yep, that's me. I take pictures of my girls either the 1st or 2nd week of November and order the photos right away. Then we put our tree up the Sunday before Thanksgiving, take our family photo that night, then I have the photos printed at my local Walgreens 1-hour photo. I have 2 days to finish the cards, and then I mail them the day before Thanksgiving. This happens EVERY YEAR. Most of my recipients are local, so they in theory receive my card the day AFTER Thanksgiving. That day, in my opinion, officially starts the Christmas Season, so my card needs to arrive to bestow wishes on their whole season. It's crazy I know, but I do enjoy the feeling of having them done. But even if I wanted to stop this madness, I have people on my list that now EXPECT to receive my card on that Friday. How can I let them down??? :)

It nearly killed me to not use an element made by the Cricut (how do I justify ALL of those cartridges I have??), but I wanted to do the Little Drummer Boy-Musical theme, so the photos took center stage. My girls just started these instruments this year.

I know this year's colors are not traditional, but the girls' dresses always dictate the color palette. My older daughter is in an awkward spot with clothes. She has grown into adult clothing sizes, but the styles don't match her age. So her dress was one of very few options out there. It works, though! I have been told by a few people now that they like these non-traditional colors for Christmas.

I used Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Basic Black and Shimmer White cardstock. The ribbon was from JoAnn (why no satin Mambo Melon, Stampin' Up?). The font is CK Holiday Spirit. So light and pretty!

Taking the family photo is ALWAYS an adventure with our dogs. Our big 7 year-old golden retriever, Sonny, thinks it's a blast to have everyone on the floor with him! Because of this, he has a hard time settling down for a picture. Just when he settles down, our 13-year old black lab, Daisy, decides to get impatient and moves about. So, the photo usually is a good one of Sonny, but Daisy is looking away. As for Snuggles the Bunny? Well, all would not be calm and bright if he were amongst the dogs during the photo shoot. It just wouldn't happen. So in the interest of anti-animal cruelty, Snuggles is photo-shopped into the family photo.

So here it is! My first Christmas post! Now I need to get busy with all of the wonderful ideas that my fellow bloggers have given me and start making some Christmas crafts! We're expecting a snowy weekend, so it should be a good time to stay in and create!

Cupcake made out of Cozy Slipper Socks!

Earlier this week was my sister's birthday, so I decided to try one of those ever-popular slipper sock cupcakes for her! It was a lot of fun to make!

My sister has mostly boys in her life, so there's just never enough pink in her house. That's why I went with pink slipper socks for her. They were pretty inexpensive at Michael's on Thanksgiving night after using my 30% entire purchase coupon. Wrapping them up to look like frosting was very easy, too!

For the holder, I used the Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge's Cupcake Holder feature and layers for Cupcake4 (p27). The Stampin' Up cardstock colors were Chocolate Chip and Soft Suede.

Then the "cupcake" was topped off with a large pom pom for the "cherry!"

Then I tucked a Caribou coffee gift card and Barnes & Noble gift card at the back of the cupcake holder to complete this cozy ensemble! That's right up my sister's alley to curl up with a good book, have a nice coffee in hand, and have cozy socks on her feet!

Next I placed the cupcake into a clear treat bag (from Wal-mart's party goods section), and tied it with an "I Love You" ribbon from American Crafts' dollar Valentine 2010 collection.

After I made the gift, I decided that I just had to make a matching card. I used the same SU brown cardstock for the cupcake wrapper, Pretty in Pink for the card base, and Real Red for the cherry. And then of course I had to add the bling by applying Stickles to the cherry and the cupcake holder lines. Voila! A birthday cupcake fit for an awesome sister and friend!

Next I will  post my Christmas card. Have a cozy weekend, everyone!

Paying It Forward with the Stylish Blogger Award!!!

Now that the weekend is here and I'm feeling better (had a cold- blah), I could finally do my Stylish Blogger Award homework!

Here are the rules by the way:
1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this
2. Share 8 things about yourself
3. Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that you have recently discovered
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards

 

So, first and foremost, thank you so much again, Stephanie at Steph Creates for awarding me my first blogger award! What fun!

Here are 8 things about me:

1.  I am a JUNKIE!! A scrapbooking and card-making SUPPLY junkie that is!!! I have far more supplies than I ever would truly need. Instead of making things, I am more likely buying things to make things!! It's bad. Managing this blog was supposed to alleviate that problem a bit by forcing me to make things and post. It's helped a little with the making of things, but I think the buying of things is getting worse. Oops!!!

2.  Like Stephanie, I too love the store, Archiver's (hence #1 above). I have an Archiver's close enough to my work to visit on my lunch hour. Sometimes I just wander around aimlessly like a kid in a candy store. It is definitely one of my happy places.

3.  I love the Dave Matthews Band. I go to at least one concert every summer! My most recent show was at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It was amazing! Not sure what I'll do next year when they take the year off (sniff, sniff).

4. Much like my supply junkie problem, I take WAY TOO MANY pictures. Being a scrapbooker, I think in terms of "telling the whole story," so I take pictures of every event from start to finish. This is good, but it also takes up a lot of my time editing all of those photos. Never could I let a photo go without being edited - what a sin!!

5. I loathe cooking on an every day basis. Making a special meal or baking is fun from time to time, but HAVING to cook is horrible in my opinion. I would love a personal chef!!! I'll keep dreaming . . .

6. My favorite paper-crafting supply is definitely the Cricut. I got the Create in September 2009. Then after seeing the error of my ways, I upgraded to the Expression last December. LOVE it!! And I don't even want to mention all of the cartridges I've managed to collect in that short period of time. Thank you, eBay!!

7. Someday I see myself relocating to the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It is amazingly beautiful there to me.

8.  I rarely watch TV, but if I do manage to sit down and watch, it's most likely the Disney Channel with my girls. Otherwise, I'm glued to my PC probably perusing the blogs of you wonderfully talented people! :)


Now onto my Stylish Blogger Award Recipients in alpha order:

Cricut Lvr - Elsa 
Expression by Pinke - Edna
Lauren's Creative - Lauren
Made By Momo - Momo
Scraplifter's Anonymous - Monica
Scrappy Critters - Tammy
Stampin Fabulousity - Kalshelia
Stamping Up North - Laurie (she also has a blog, Cooking Up North that has her great recipes on it - YUM!)

These blogs I enjoy on a daily basis and give me tons of inspiration!!! Thank you to all of you!!!

Happy Holidays everyone!!

My 1st Blogger Award!!!

I had to keep re-reading the comment that Stephanie over at Steph Creates left for me letting me know that she selected me as one of her 8 recipients to pass along the stylish blogger award that she was given!!

What a surprise!! Thank you so much, Stephanie! I will have to get busy and pick my bloggers to pass the award to ASAP! :)

Time to Give Thanks!

Are you ready to give thanks? Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away - Wow! One of our local radio stations is already playing Christmas music 24/7, so I feel like time is going by oh so fast! How many shopping days left??? But seriously, I hope you are all counting your blessings as we get closer to the official day of giving thanks.

Here is my Thanksgiving card that I sent out to close family and friends earlier this week:

Supplies used:

Adorable fall photo of my girls :)
Cuttlebug Victoria embossing folder
Cricut Storybook cartridge (die cut for "Give Thanks" - pg 71 Accent Blackout)
PC for inside wording - Be Safe font used
Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry cardstock & ink
Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry 5/8" satin ribbon
Stampin' Up Soft Suede cardstock & ink
Stampin' Up Very Vanilla cardstock
Stampin' Up Holiday Best Stamp Set "Give Thanks" (previous catty hostess set)
Stampin' Up Ticket corner punch

I love taking pictures of my girls and making them the focal point of all of my cards for the various holidays. And they just love "photo shoots" with Mom . . . NOT! I usually make up for the torture, though. Yes, they can be bribed! Our Christmas photo shoot is tomorrow, so let the torture continue!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Autumn Candle Gift Holder with Card

Have you smelled The Autumn candle by Slatkin & Co
at Bath & Body Works? It has a wonderful scent of a cool, crisp autumn day with a hint of spice! Mmmmmmmmm . . .

Amidst all of my Halloween planning and crafting, my good friend Carol, had a birthday last month so I purchased this wonderful smelling 4 oz candle for her. She is my Stampin' Up demo, so I felt that the card and gift packaging needed to be extra special!

For the card, I used all Stampin' Up products of course! I used the Watercolor Trio stamp set, the famous scallop border bunch, Soft Suede and Dusty Durango In-color cardstock, and Dusty Durango polka dot ribbon from last year's catty.

For the candle gift holder, I used a Bazzill sheet of cardstock that I thought looked similar to the Dusty Durango since I didn't have a 12x12 Dusty Durango sheet. It turned out that I could have used an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of cardstock for the holder, though. I cut the holder out using the cupcake holder creative feature on my Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge using 7 1/2 inches as the size. The candle seemed similar to a regular cupcake after viewing Joy's Life's cupcake sizing post (thanks, Joy!), so that's what I went with and it worked out well! Then after I assembled the holder, I added the polka dot ribbon as the handle, wrapped the candle in tissue paper, and tied it with some matching raffia - Voila! A coordinating gift to match the card!

I am currently working on my Thanksgiving cards, so I will post one hopefully very soon. Enjoy your weekend!

It's All in the Details Part 2

Happy November all! And since it is now November, a blog design change was in order!!

This will about do it for me as far as Halloween-related posts, I think. Here are the remaining details from my big Halloween bash last Friday!

Party favors from "The Witch"

(witch from 'Happy Hauntings' on back of tag

and Affy Tapples in bulk from the factory outlet!)

The sweets table "to die for"

The "blood-dripping" tapers from Yankee Candle

The "Witch Fingers" aka "Severed Fingers"

The party was a lot of fun, but truth be told, I'm glad it's over. Now it's time for the season of thanks (though a mindset that should be had every day)!

Have a blessed day!

It's all in the details . . .

Last night's party was a lot of fun! I hope my 5th and 6th grade guests thought so, too. A lot of the fun for me was in the details.

One of my co-workers had told me she purchased the Cricut Lite Cupcake Wrappers cartridge, so I borrowed it from her last week (thanks, Gail!). When she brought it into me, she also brought her new Halloween Cricut Solutions cartridges, October 31st and Pumpkin Carving. It's so nice having crafty co-workers!! I made wrappers for the party using the Witch cut from the Cupcake Wrappers cartridge, and the creepy zombie-like hand from the Pumpkin Carvings Cartridge. These were a little more time and work than I originally wanted to do, but they turned out pretty cute!

The witch cupcake wrapper cut out beautifully, but they took a long time - especially for a full batch of 24 cupcakes! I used an embossed swiss dot green piece of cardstock to cut out the hands so they would have a bumpy look, but cut off the circle around them. So fun! More party details to come . . .

She's baaaaaaaack . . . with play dough!

HAPPY HALLOWEEKEND!!
I know, I know. I start a blog and then I become MIA for weeks at a time. So sorry to my wonderful followers! October is always a busy month - especially with having a Halloween bash for my girls at the end of it. Last night was the party, so I can breathe a little sigh of relief now! I have been crafting these past couple of weeks, though, so I have some photos to share.

Last weekend I made pumpkin pie play dough with my girls using the Family Fun Magazine recipe. I do have to credit Tammy at Scrappy Critters for the idea to make it. I loved the way she decorated her container and thought it would be a cute little gift for my girls' chapel buddies at school. One buddy is in Kindergarten and the other is in 2nd grade. I know 2nd grade was probably too old for play dough, but then again we had fun playing with it, so why wouldn't a 2nd grader??? And the smell of it was sooooo good!! 

I loved being able to personalize these containers for my girls' chapel buddies. One of the containers is a frosting container (had to cover the Pillsbury Doughboy up on the cap- LOL), and the other is from our local deli (originally holding guacomole-YUM). I used the Mini Monsters cartridge for the pumpkins with googly eyes, patterned paper from the DCWV Autumn Splendor Stack, and added the Isaiah 64:8 bible verse, "But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, you are the potter; and all we are the work of your hand." I thought it was fitting being play dough and all! :)

I also made some more of those awesome pencil holders to attach to the play dough gift - an idea from
Made by Momo.  I can see making these pencil holders for all sorts of holidays! My girls said that both of their chapel buddies enjoyed these Halloween treats. Gotta love hearing that! More posts to come soon. :)

Rest In Pieces . . . Reese's Pieces that is!

Tonight's assignment for myself was to make 8 niece/nephew treats since I will be seeing them at a family party this weekend. I actually keep a binder filled with the holidays and what I do for each of them every year. Otherwise . . . I forget. Last year, I left myself a post-it note with the idea to use "Rest In Pieces" and give Reese's Pieces candy. I'm not sure where I saw that idea, but I was so excited to find it this year in my Halloween tab!

So, the plan was to get Reese's Pieces candy. The only Reese's Pieces in Halloween fun-sized packages that I found in stores were inside a huge value pack with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Fast Breaks. I ended up purchasing the theater candy boxes from Walgreen's instead, figuring the packaging would be easier to work with and would be more of a substantial treat for my nieces and nephews. They could take it to the movies after all!

And when I saw Pinke's "Yummy Bunch" treat packages in My Pink Stamper's Spooky Challenge back in September, her tombstone packaging helped me design the wrapper for my Reese's Piece's boxes! Thanks so much, Pinke!

I made the grave wording on my PC, printed it, then used the Center Point function on my Cricut Expression to cut the graves from the Happy Hauntings cartridge. I also used my PC for the message to my nieces and nephews, then used a punch to cut the 3" scalloped circles. Both of the white grave and circle pieces were sponged with black ink. And the little yellow skull was stickled for some bling action. Such a fun and easy project!

I'm so happy that tomorrow is Friday - YES!! Have a good weekend everyone!