Thursday, December 29, 2011

My Christmas Gifts!!

According to my Mom I am hard to shop for (do not even ask about last year), so this year with the redo of my craft room I tried to be very clear: get me storage!! I guess I did a good job communicating because I got just what I needed for my newly organized space:
These Jetmax cubes are so awesome for organizing everything in my room. They sit at just the right height on my floor and the dividers in the drawers work perfectly for my Stickles, floss and twine, brads, and other loose things. I choose to put the drawer on top but it can go on the bottom as well. Then there is my new wire...
This is from IKEA and is the coolest thing. It is a wire that can hang across any space and you buy clips or hooks for it to hang stuff...very strong and now I have room for special photos, my cart list at my finger tips and I put my rings of Page maps up as well. Just wonderful.
The final piece of my room is this great sign from Hallmark. My sister got this for me and it has a home in my clean craft space already! I think the quote fits me in all sorts of ways.
I had a wonderful Christmas this year. I got to be with my whole family; including my husbands parents who spent their first Christmas as residents of Illinois. We all enjoyed a fantastic meal (including my mother-in-laws jello that I love) together and while it was not a white Christmas it was still very special.
Yes those are Perry the Platypus PJs

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Favorite of the Year

The final challenge of the year over at Cooking With Cricut is all about what we worked so hard on this past year. They want you to share your favorite project of the year.
It is not hard to pick my favorite project of the year...this wedding basket that I put together for my brother-in-law and his new wife was hands down wonderful to make and turned out just right! I had a blast selecting out the gift cards options and than selecting the decor for each little bag inside. You can see the original post from July HERE when I put it together for the first blog hop I sponsored.

I hope everyone has a wonderful end of this year and a great start to the new one as well.!!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Art Caddy

I am so in love with vinyl right now. After making all those glitter ornaments I also added vinyl to a few more gifts for the holidays. The first was this art-caddy I made for my niece. This year she got an easel for Christmas and I supplied all sorts of supplies including: brushes, paints, chalk, markers and crayons. I wanted her to have a bucket to put them all in, but of course I did not want it to look plain so I had to CRICUTIZE IT (this is what my daughter says about my projects)!
I used my Imagine to print color blocks (I do this when I am not sure what I will cut but know what pattern I need. The pattern and color are both from Best Friends.
Next I cut the letters and backing layers using Hello Kitty Font (still one of my favorites!) I added the word "art" and some small flowers as well to complete the look.
My niece carried the thing around a large part of the day on Christmas, putting in different toys and things. Kids always do great things to show they like something!! I am in my craft room today so hopefully I will have lots to share with you soon. My daughter had strep throat so I was giving full attention to her rest (MOVIE MARATHON!!) and now that she is better and wants to play I get to as well!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Final Ornaments (I Promise) & Baking Time

I am going to stick to the simple details here with this last batch of ornaments. I was so inspired this year by everyone who posted these great glitter ornaments on blogs and the Cricut board. I made so many and just wanted to share this last crop..I made these for my sister, parents, friends and hubby (even added bling to his with my I Rock..check out the crown!)
Now something different for me: I love to bake. I actually love to cook, but do not have time to do much of either so when I do get the chance I am always looking to try a new recipe. With my new interest in Pinterest (Have you got your invite yet? If you want one please contact me via my contact form) I am finding new recipes so often that I decided I had better try some while I had time over my winter break.

I selected 2 dessert recipes and tried them both out for a holiday get together we had on Friday! The first one is called Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie N' Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar...yeah all of those things are in this one pan:
Can you say rich?  These bars were really tasty, but WOW were they a lot to take in. Best with ice cream and small cuts. Here is a link to the recipe on kevinandamanda.com.
I also made this wonderful Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip using a recipe I got HERE at add a pinch.com. I am so enjoying discovering new things and sharing with others. The crafty ideas I have discovered are also amazing! Hope everyone had a lovely holiday yesterday. These put us in a mini food coma, but what an amazing day!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Wrapping Time

The time has come for Christmas!  I love the holidays and am enjoying having time to be with my family and friends during my 2 weeks off from work.  I also enjoy wrapping gifts...my husband is very happy about this as he feels he is awful at it.

This year I took my daughter to Disney World as her present (we went in October so it was an early gift) and the Disney theme has carried over to the wrapping this winter. Each year my daughter selects paper that she sends to the North Pole with our Elf on The Shelf, Conner. On Christmas when Santa drops off the gifts he leaves the extra for us to use in years to come. This year my daughter could not decided and selected two (Mickey Mouse and Santa) different wrappings. She could only send one to Santa so I suggested she keep the Mickey paper here and I would use it for our family gifts and add special tags. She agreed as long I pinkie promised to make the tags...so could not let her down...
I used Mickey Font to create the Mickey heads and enlarged the Santa hat from Paper Doll Dress Up to fit just right. I felt that they all needed something extra so I used my silver Stickles to make them shine! The pile looks great and I am excited to share these gifts with family.
I am almost done with my wrapping and with my daughters help (she is in charge of bows) we will soon be having game night and go off to drive around looking at holiday lights!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

My First Pillow Box: Gift Card Holder

I have been wanting to make some pillow boxes using the Girl's Makeup Party cartridge (not the only reason I bought it, but close!) and with the holiday here it seemed like the perfect time to do so. Lucky for me a co-worker asked if I could make her a small box for some gift cards she had bought.
Perfect timing = my first pillow box creation!
I cut the pillow box (did not pay attention to the size I cut it..oops) and decided that putting my design on before gluing it together would be best so that I would have a flat surface!
I cut the black string of lights using black vinyl because I did not have a shiny black to match the rest of my papers and it stuck on beautifully. I used my favorite Gypsy feature the hide/contour button to make this cut...It is off 3 Birds on Parade and I did not need the bird!
I cut the lights in 3 colors of pearlized card stock (from 3 different stacks) and also added the name using Boys Will Be Boys for the letters. Once it was all put together I was very pleased with my first box and my coworker was overjoyed with the results. I hope to make some more for my own gift giving purposes this afternoon.
This pillow box means I have checked off one of the challenges on My Pink Stamper's 12 Days of Christmas. All sorts of fun projects relating to the holidays are going on each day and each day she is giving fun little challenges to everyone. For day 8 it was to make something you have never made before...YEAH!! She is giving away some great prizes and you do not need to take part n the challenges to win but they are fun.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

WINTER BREAK!!!

I am sooooo happy to be on Winter Break. Yesterday was my last day for 2 weeks and I am thrilled!

I have been so looking forward to family time. We spent the whole day together today; shopping, fun lunch and movie night this evening. Tomorrow we all decide to have a stay home day where we each get to play on our own or together...Guess where I plan on being most of the day???  You guessed it, in my newly redone crafting space creating fun things. I have a few more ornaments left to finish and I want to make some gift boxes for Christmas so hopefully I get get a lot of that done tomorrow.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and family and friends.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Saying Good-bye to Jacob

It has been an amazing month with Jacob, the Hot Scrap Assistant, but the time has come for him to move on in his Hot Blog Hop tour. He has become very homesick and has decided that he will be heading home for a break. Chloe will welcome him back to her new home and soon after New Years' he will head back out onto the road again.
It was not easy for him to say good-bye to Marie Elise, especially after Clippy showed him what she had been working on...
They will be apart for awhile, while Jacob stops at home and than finishes his travels, but when he returns home to Chloe and Her Clip on Koalas Marie Elise will follow and hopefully things will pick up right where they are leaving off.
We all worked together to put together a snapshot of events from their stay with us and added it the all the other adventures Jacob has had. We wish him safe travels and Happy Holidays! It really was so amazing for me to have him here!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Glitter Ornaments: Part 3 Weekend Blitz



I have been busy finishing up ornaments for my daughter's teachers and for Christmas, part 1 with my husband's family. His brothers and their significant others (our first Christmas with Aunt Melissa) came in from Minnesota last night and today we will celebrate the holidays together!
First here is the ornament I made for a teacher that has been working with my daughter this year. She is a 4th grade teacher that my daughter just fell in love with (she got lost and ended up in her room...full of Monkeys!) and has become an angel to us as she helps Sophie with her behavior goals. I cannot say enough nice things about Mrs.Lucas and had to make her a fun ornament: (This is so my favorite so far!)
I have been printing colored or pattern squares on the white printable vinyl using my Imagine and than cutting out my shapes. It is so easy once you get the right sizes.
Next the family ornaments for today's holiday celebration. First a Mr. and Mrs. for the newlyweds. I cut this with my new Phrases cartridge and love the way the layers showed up on the purple glitter. They used 2 shades of purple  for their wedding colors so it was perfect. The year was done using Gypsy Font.
For Uncle Jason, the best photographer I know, a "Say Cheese" Create A Critter ornament, with his name in Don Juan.
Finally for my husband's parents, I cut the word "family" off the Wall Decor and More cartridge. I love these ornaments and am having so much fun making them.  I will have my last batch to share soon. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. We got a little snow so it just covers and looks pretty!! (Oh and n a special note...this is my 300 post ever!!! Very fun stuff!)


Monday, December 12, 2011

Holiday Bookmarks

I fell in love with these simple angel ornaments and as I started to make some of them I thought that maybe they would look great as part of a bookmark. I wasn't totally sure how I was going to go about this and I had never made a book mark before (while maybe in school). I am still not sure I did everything totally right, but I am happy with the way these look and as far as a bookmark goes...they will work!
I started by cutting out some rectangles using George and Basic Shapes. I used the Gypsy to make these 1.5 x 5.51 each. I glued one green and one red together using my Xyron.
Next I cut out some scallop hearts and "Happy Holidays" using MS Seasonal Cake Art. I glued them on and let them dry while I warmed up my YourStory machine so I could laminate each bookmark. I was not sure if all the edges would adhere around each bookmark, but they turned out great and once they were trimmed and hole punched I was ready for the ribbon.
I made the little angels and than I tied a bow to the top of the bookmarks. They are not perfect, but I am pleased with the results and they will make great gift tags for some of my presents (giving lots of books this year!) Over at Little Scrap Pieces there is a fun holiday challenge. Thanks to Karen for letting me know about it.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Glitter Ornaments: Part 3 JUST FOR ME!

In my quest to finish all the glitter ornaments I almost forgot that I wanted to make one just for me celebrating one of my favorite things...CRICUT! I had to stop everything and get it done and on the tree.
I had made the green glitter ornaments and knew this was the right color for mine (lighter than the one in the Cricut magazine!) I cut my vinyl using my E2: love that it has the settings for depth and speed all set-up and all you have to do is select it. All the cuts are off the Cricut Circle Cartridge Cricut Everyday (on the back I cut out 2011 as well).
I did not love the idea of using black ribbon, but when I got these 3 pieces all together I really liked the look of it. I am having so much fun making these.This one is being entered into the Circle weekly challenge: Make an ornament, use glitter! Perfect combo for me.