Spanish Thank You

Next week my hubby is off to the Dominican Republic to teach in a Bible School and at some services/youth meetings. We're not sure who he will be staying with, but we wanted to send a Thank You card along to thank them for their hospitality, so last night I whipped up a Thank You card using my new Spellbinders die cuts (Sooooo much easier than trying to cut freehand!!!!!!!!) and some of my new goodies from my cousin. 

Supplies:
Paper: So Sophie 6x6 paper pad, Recollections 81/2x11 card stock
Embellishments:Twine, Q and Company gold pearls (thanks Christy!), and Spellbinders die cuts (sorry, can't remember which label pack it is), printed out and then layered over So Sophie patterned paper, used raised foam adhesive squares to adhere to card
Sentiment:Google Translate into Microsoft Word, printed out and taped onto card
Image: Microsoft Word - I just found an image I could work with and then used the image settings in Microsoft to adjust the color to match the color scheme of the rest of the card.

Re-purposed Christmas Candles

Good Morning All... This morning I wanted to share some pictures of some Christmas candles that I re-purposed. They used to be regular cream candles and candles that had red and white snowflakes on the outside of them. Well, I don't use red in my Christmas decorations, so I wanted to change them up so they would match the Christmas decorations, and could stay out all winter, matching the decor of my living room. For the base I used an existing candle holder - just storing away the normal candles and rocks for the rest of the Christmas/Winter season.

Supplies:
Paper: Basic card stock, My Minds Eye 6x6 Christmas pack
Embellishments: Shapes cut out with Spellbinders die cuts, foam sparkle snowflake stick-ons, twine, borders cut out with Recollections border punch

Thanksgiving Dinner set up

So, every year my family has a tradition.... We all gather at my mom and dad's for Thanksgiving dinner and some great fellowship... The fam usually doesn't leave until like 10 or 11 o'clock.... Since we were at my mom's I didn't do much fall/Thanksgiving day decorating at our own home, but I helped my mom do a little decorating in the dining room for Thanksgiving dinner there. I took some pics to share with you... The paper pumpkins are leftovers from what I didn't sell at the Holiday Expo.

And we have a winner....

I went on Random.org and the lucky winner is commenter # 3...Anita from The Other Side of Me who said:

I will  try to get your package out this week!!

Blessings to everyone this week!

PS - I do have some crafting projects to share... however I don't have pictures yet!!! And actually, some of it I never will because when I was in Erie I made up some simple hair pieces and two bouquets and a flower for the grooms lapel for a friend of my sister... They actually turned out really cute and I am bummed that I forgot to take pics!!

But I will have some pictures later this week... of the ubber generosity of my cousin and all the stuff she gave me and a present from another friend as well... that has great instructions and templates for creating awesome cards!!!

I also want to try hanging some garland around my dining room entrance (thanks Kim for the great idea!!! I had no idea what I was going to do with all of that garland now that I don't have stairs or a mantle!!!!) So after I get that up, I'll share some pics of that and the dining room that I am almost finished decorating for Christmas. Plus a project I did last night recovering several candles I have with some beautiful Christmas paper from my cousin.

Thank you ladies for thinking of me!! I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends!!!

**EDIT**


Since Anita has been so generous...instead of picking someone else, I have decided that there will be two winners!

The second winner is Hilachas who said:

The Joy planner is taken, but if you have a specific planner you like, please email me at agohl85 @ gmail DOT com and let me know!

Congratulations Ladies!!!

And this wraps up the Holiday Expo pics...

So this is a 1.5 day work week... SAWEET! We are leaving tomorrow for Erie, where my family lives. I can't wait!!!

Anyhoo, I just thought that I would wrap up the rest of the pictures I have to share of some close ups of the rest of the crafts I sold at the Holiday Expo last week. (Holy cow, was it only last week??? The last two weeks have been soooo long and yet flown by at the same time...)

Supplies:

Paper:Basic Recollections card stock, patterned paper from scraps, some are from a friend,some are from a K & Company mini paper pack, and the other snowflake paper (the paper used for the card sets) was handstamped by me.

Embellishments:Ribbon from a friend and from gifts that I saved the ribbon from, Used a Recollections edge puncher for some added dimension on some of the magnetic notepads, buttons on gift bows froma friend

Sentiments: All sentiments from a sticker pack that came with a paper crafting magazine last Christmas, typed out on my PC and the Season's Greeting snowflake is a digi image that I will have to post the origin of later...

Christmas Planners and a Giveaway

Good Afternoon All..... Guess what??? It's Friday!!!! Woohoo!!! And better yet it's Friday afternoon!!!!! Less than a week until Thanksgiving!!! (Is it just me or did November just fly by!?!?!?!)

Anyhoo, I just wanted to share some close up pictures of the Christmas Planners that I created for the Holiday Expo earlier this week... if you stick around until the end of this post you may find out that I'm giving one of them away. ;) 

Supplies:
Paper: Bazzil card stock, Recollections card stock, Studio G patterned paper, patterned paper from Dollar Aisle at Target, Recollections patterned paper
Embellishments: Studio G holiday chipboard set, buttons from dollar aisle at Michaels, snowflakes from a Secret Pal and from Michaels (sorry don't remember what brand - I bought them last year) Hero Arts gems, Ribbon from Inkadoo Christmas Stamp Set, Target dollar aisle, and Michaels
Sentiments: Sentiments either from Studio G holiday chipboard set or printed out on my computer with Microsoft Word
Digi Image: Digi image from Bugaboo Stamps

Now about that giveaway....I will be giving away one of the Christmas Planners above, plus a surprise present for whoever wins.

Rules: You will have 3 opportunities to post a comment to win
1. Must be a follower of this blog - if not please follow and then leave me a comment telling me you did!
2. Re-post this giveaway on your blog with a link back to here.
3. Tell me which one of the Christmas planners you like best and what your favorite organization tip for the holidays is.

I will leave take comments up until Friday, November 25 and will announce the winner on Monday, November 27. 

Holiday Expo

Hullo all! Sorry I've been AWOL, but I was in some major last minute crank these crafts out mode for the last two weeks before the Holiday Expo I participated in on Tuesday. I have a bunch of pictures to share what I made, but today I thought I'd just share a couple of pictures I took and a friend took of my table. :) I didn't too bad. The only table that really sold a TON was the lady selling scarfs that she imported from Ecuador. I didn't want to spend money on my table set up, so I just grabbed my green table cloth that I use for the holidays, a orange leaf serving tray to display my paper pumpkins and a small basket to hold the little candy pouches. I just whipped up a sign with the name of my Etsy shop in Word and put it in a frame I already had. I also managed to get my business cards all printed out too. Sweet :)

(Sidenote: The chocolate candy didn't sell, but that's okay, I'll just use it as small gifts for co-workers, and some little cousins and friend's children. :) )

I'm almost out of pictures to share!

I didn't intentionally do so, but it turns out I have just enough pictures edited to have a post for every day this week. Today I will finish up sharing the pictures I have so far of the stuff I've been making for the holiday expo and tomorrow I'll share some pictures of our master closet (the very last of the apartment pictures - for now at least.... I may let you see the spare room one day ;0) )

Anyhow, I only have 5 completed so far, but I've got one done except for the sentiment and a ton of notepads left to work with... so I think I will try to make about 20 of those. I figure whatever I don't sell at the Holiday Expo I can put up on Etsy or give away for Christmas presents... Either way, might as well make um while I'm in mass production mode. ;)

For the base of these magnetic notepads, I used brown card stock, cut to size. I also made the cardstock a little long so that I could score about 1 1/2 inches down on the top and fold over in the back to re-enforce the area where I put the magnet. The notepads I got from CVS and Dollar Tree - You'd be amazed at some of the random things you can find in CVS's seasonal aisles sometimes.... and the Dollar Trees down here are great... full of cheap organizing solutions and stuff for crafts. I used a Martha Stewart punch and a Fiskars scallop punch to give some dimension to the tops of the notepads. For the more masculine/fall looking pads, I used some chipboard letters that hubby got me for my birthday and a Fiskars notebook edge hole punch. The lettering for the other masculine notepad came from a travel paper pack set I got a couple of years ago.

Homemade Christmas Bows

Yesterday I said that I would share some pictures of the Christmas bows that I am making up for the Holiday Expo on November 15. I have been making sooo much Christmas stuff that I am starting to run out of Christmas craft paper. I'm going to have to pick up a pack somewhere (except, although there is CHRISTMAS STUFF EVERYWHERE already, I could not find a paper pack at Michaels last week. Hopefully I'll be able to look again this weekend and I will find something!!!).

Anyhoo, I made these from a picture from the DCWV Blog (Basically a modified pumpkin design). I took some patterned paper and plain card stock cut down to 3/4 and 1/2 inch strips of paper both at 4 and 6 inch lengths for varying sizes of bow. I then poked holes through both ends of all the papers with a hole punch and ran twine through the holes, bent the papers over and ran twine through the opposite ends. Then I spread the papers out so that they would have a bow effect and then I took a fiskars scalloped punch (Thanks Anita for this punch -  I use that punch and the smaller Martha Stewart punch ALL THE TIME! Such a blessing to have such a sweet friend!) and punched out some scalloped circles in coordinating papers and then glued buttons on top and glued the entire thing to the top of the bow. One thing to note - make sure your knots on the ends of the twine are big enough that the paper will not slip over if the holes expand a little bit. Learned this from trial and error over the weekend! Also, make sure you pull the twine as tight as it will go before you tie it off at the top so that when you spread the paper strips out they don't slide all over the place the minute you get them adjusted!

These are all I have made so far but I plan to have at least 20-25 made up for the Holiday Expo. They are actually pretty fast to make. The quickest way to do them is assembly line style. Cut all of the papers down at the same time, then poke holes in the paper ends and then assemble. Also, I would use twine rather than thread - Regular thread will not be strong enough.

Some more Holiday Expo creations

Morning all.... This morning I am going to share a few more of the Christmas crafts I have started for the holiday expo that is in (GASP) 14 days.... oh my... I hope I get everything done in time!!!!

First, I made a Christmas gift bag (rather embellished a plain gift bag I bought from the Dollar Tree) and gift tag to accompany the Christmas Planner in the silent auction that all particpants of the Holiday Expo are requested to donate to.

Supplies:
Paper: Basic card stock, patterned paper from dollar aisle last year at Target
Embellishments & Sentiment:
     Gift Bag: I made the bow out of a modified a tutorial from the DCWV blog (they have lots of great tutorials) to create a number of Christmas bows (I'll share several more in another blog post), ribbon from dollar tree and Michaels, button from a stash given to me by a friend
     Gift Tag: Gift tag cut out from an Inkadoo holiday gift tag kit, I papered over it (the original cut out was white) with dark blue cardstock and then tore up little pieces of white paper to get a rough, snow-like effect. Over the white snow, I stamped Winter Wishes from a stamp set found in the dollar aisle at Michaels (got it last year after Christmas for 25 cents! - Always check the clearance aisles after holidays, you can find some awesome deals!!!), I then took 3 buttons that only had two holes (from a stash from a friend) and glued black paper to the backs to give a coal button effect. I then cut up a small piece of ribbon for the scarf and cut a small hat out of black cardstock to finish off the snowman. The ribbon for the scarf and to tie the gift tag came from Michaels.