Make It Monday

   Good Morning, everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend, and stayed warm/safe with the crazy weather and cold temps going around the states right now.

   I have been meaning to post a couple projects I did in December, but with the holidays I never had a chance to get them posted. Well today is your lucky day to see them! So consider today a Make It Monday/Throw Back Thursday combo-type of post! hehe

   I made these two projects as prizes for my husband's work Christmas party. They were a ton of fun to make, but, also, I had to throw them together quite quickly with all the other things on my December to-do list! 

   This first project was inspired by a fellow consultant, Donna Cosgrove, and her tree project she posted on Instagram! I purchased 3 paper mache trees from Hobby Lobby, spray painted them white, and decorated them using Oh Deer papers and papers from an old DCWV Collection called Winter in the Woods.

I forgot to take decent pictures of these at home, and had to snap this shot with my cell phone right before the party.

   Each double-sided strip is 1/2"x 6", and is hot glued to the tree. I started gluing along the bottom and worked my way to the top. The exception to this was the smallest tree. The top row's strips are only 1/2"x 3" because of the spacing.

   Next I embellished each tree. To do this I used Thin Cuts-Stars set from CTMH, and the Stars thin waver dies from Heidi Swapp to make the toppers for each tree. I die-cut these from CTMH gold glitter paper using a mirror image technique. To do this technique first die-cut with the glitter paper facing up. To get the "mirror image", die-cut the same image, but with the glitter paper facing down. This way you can glue the two pieces back-to-back without any white backing showing (this works best with non-symmetrical images such as these stars). 

   I then embellished around the tree using the different sized circles from the Gold Glitter Fundamental stickers that CTMH had in the last Annual Inspirations Idea Book. I love these sticker sheets, and bought a ton of extras so I had plenty to spare while decorating these trees! You can never have enough gold glitter!

   The next project I did was a paper mache word made from marquee letters. I purchased these letters from Hobby Lobby as well, spray painted them white, and decorated them with the same paper from DCWV, and some silver glitter snowflakes! This was a super cute and easy project to whip up, but still looks amazing and elegant as a display!

   I traced each letter by hand onto the paper I wanted to use. I cut these out, ink distressed the edges (in this case with CTMH Desert Sand ink), and glued the paper to the letter. I then used the Thin Cuts-Snowflakes set from CTMH to cut out the two different sized snowflakes to decorate each letter. This die set sold out early (which I know was a bummer for most people), but wowzers! LOVE LOVE LOVE how this simple added die-cut made the whole project stand out! 

   So there you have it! What did you work on in December? Have you started any projects in the New Year? I would love to hear what you're working on! I hope you get time to get crafty this week, and until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

   

Make It Monday

   Welcome back to Make It Monday! Have you been getting crafty for the holidays this month? Are you crafting for you or for others? I typically do more crafting for others this time of year, but I am hoping to squeeze in some time for my projects soon!

   Today I want to share another layout with you, but this one is for Christmas pictures! I used the Workshops Your Way: City Sidewalks Kit to complete this layout. However, I modified the original layout and sketch to make it my own. This is layout #2 from the WYW kit:

   Now here is my take on this sketch:

   I took the original sketch and rotated it outward (the bottom of the sketch now became the sides). I don't typically use a lot of 2x2 or 3x3 sized pictures so I also modified the picture sizes on my layout to use 4x6 and 3x4 pictures instead!

   Instead of the stripe paper I used the darker trees side, but kept all the other papers and colors the same. I moved the title to the bottom to accommodate my pictures better, too, and dovetailed all the pieces under the title piece. I added the glitter die-cut pieces from the City Sidewalks Complements pack, but still thought it needed something. So I decided to add some stamping! I used the Cozy Christmas stamp and Thin Cut Bundle to die-cut the trees and stamp them for my pages. I used Willow and Lagoon inks for the trees, Chocolate ink for the bases, and Cranberry ink for the stars. Then I layered and adhered them to my pages. I think they added the perfect touch, and were super easy to do!

   What do you think of my modified layout? What's your favorite way to modify sketches given to you in the Workshop kits? Let me know if you have any questions about this project or about the products used! Remember, this WYW kit and coordinating embellishments and stamp sets retire at the end of this month! So make sure and gets yours before it's too late! I hope you have a very Merry Christmas, and until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

Black Friday CTMH Haul

   It's the eve before Winter Storm #2 of the year, and I decided to share a fun video with you all! I purchased a couple of the Black Friday bundles from CTMH this year, and got around to finally getting a video posted this week for you all to see what I received!

   I purchased 3 of the bundles, and am very pleased with all the products I got! Check out the video here or on my YouTube page.

   I hope you enjoyed seeing my Black Friday haul from CTMH! Were you able to score one for yourself? I would love to hear what you got!

   Stay safe this weekend if you're traveling, and until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

Make It Monday!

   Welcome back to Make It Monday! Sorry I have been MIA the last month with my blog posts. It has been very busy with traveling, craft fairs, and the holidays! I am slowly getting caught up, but wanted to share some holiday and winter projects with you before the holidays sneak by us!

   Today I want to share a layout I made using the Oh Deer paper pack by Close to My Heart. This layout was inspired by a Scrapbook Generations sketch that I made into a 2 page layout and modified! Here's what I came up with:

   I also offered the first page of this layout as a make-n-take at my Fall Retreat this past September/October! I used 1 full page of the branches and acorns paper, but cut it down to span the two pages. I then edged that paper with the matching zip strip from that sheet of paper. I used Sea Glass and Cocoa cardstock to mat my photos on the left-hand side and to edge my photos on top and bottom as seen on the right-hand page.

   All the pictures used were 4x6 so I didn't have to cut anything down! I also used Sea Glass glitter paper and the Snowflakes Thin Cuts (now sold out) to embellish the layout. For the title I used the Winter Thin Cut and a Cricut die-cut title from the new Flower Market Cartridge by CTMH. I like how the two different fonts work together even though they are from completely different products!

   On the left-hand side I stamped the journaling lines using the Capture This stamp set and Desert Sand ink. I then stamped the pine branches from the Perfectly Pine stamp set in Bamboo ink. On a separate scrap piece of White Daisy cardstock I stamped the pine cones in Cocoa and Desert Sand inks, and fussy cut them out to layer them over the stamped pine branches. I also added the berry branches in Ruby ink behind the pine cones. This was an extra fussy cut I had from the September stamp-of-the-month (now retired).

   I really like how quick and easy this layout came together, and the pictures of me and my niece from a couple years ago fit perfectly with the colors! If you have any questions about this layout or the products used, please let me know! The Oh Deer paper, Thin Cuts, and Perfectly Pine stamp set will all be retiring at the end of this month! So make sure and get yours before they sell out or before they retire! Until next time,

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

Happy Halloween!

   Happy Halloween, everyone! We love Halloween at my house, and this year we get to experience trick-or-treating with our little guy for the first time! We know he won't get it and most likely won't care, but we're excited to take him to a few of our neighbors' houses and say hello!

   Since it is Monday and Halloween, I thought I would share a couple quick and easy Halloween projects for you today. I know it might be a little late to make these now, but you can always have them in store for next year (or maybe that last minute card you wanted to make but now need it immediately)!!

   First up is a super cute paper box using CTMH Jeepers Creepers paper from the Holiday Expressions Idea Book. I made this 4x4 box using my WRMK 1-2-3 Punch Board (love this tool), and some adhesive! It was super fast and easy to do! The only difference I made was instead of using the flaps to close the box, I glued them to the sides so you could see the double-sided paper detail. I then cut the "Boo" from the CTMH Artbooking Cricut Cartridge in Tangerine cardstock. This project is perfect for holding cards, treats, and other fun little gift items.

   Inside my Boo Box I had 3 Halloween cards I made. These little guys were inspired by projects I had pinned on Pinterest a while back. I don't know who to give credit to, though, since the pins took me to other re-pins or posts.

   These cards are super simple, too, and only require scissors and a couple circle punches! I used a 1 1/2" punch for the eyes and eyelids then added 1" circles as pupils, noses, etc. I even used a 2" circle to make Dracula's hairline! Pretty sneaky, right? These were so much fun to do, and I think kids would love making them, too, on paper bags or as a banner!

   Lastly, I made this super quick and easy Halloween garland for my house. I planned on using it as a countdown, but it was too cute and I wanted to leave it up! I used the new stamp set, "Monster Crossing", and Jeepers Creepers papers, both from the Holiday Expressions Idea Book, to make the rings of this garland. I stamped the images in lines across a 12x12 paper then cut them down to 6" strips and added adhesive and a mini staple to each one to help it hold. Super easy and fast, which is definitely up my alley!

 

   I hope you enjoyed my Halloween projects for you today! Check back later this week to see what else I have in store for you, and until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

Back from hiatus!!

   Hi, everyone! I'm so sorry I've been on hiatus this year. Time flies really fast when you have a little one around, and trying to find my new normal has been a huge part of this year's learning curve!

   I'm loving being a mom, though, but miss posting fun projects for you all! So I'm back to blogging and sharing my fun creations with you, and am hoping that this will help me get more crafty time in each month as well!

   To start back in the blogging world, I want to start a new post series I'm calling "Make It Monday"! On most Mondays, I am hoping to share with you a project that I have made recently, and to give you tips on how you can re-create it for yourself!

   Let's kick this fun series off today by sharing a fun Halloween layout I made using CTMH's new collection, Jeepers Creepers, from the new Holiday Expressions Idea Book.

   I really wanted to scrap the pictures we took from our little guy's 1st Halloween last year. So I got out my new Jeepers Creepers Workshops Your Way Kit and got started! I used only 1 sheet of the main Jeepers Creepers paper (eyes on one side and cute monsters on the other), and the coordinating zip strip for that paper. I then added the Jeepers Creepers washi tapes, a journal card from the PML paper, and some die-cuts to complete the look.

   The title die-cuts came from a few cartridges. I used the font from the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge to make the "baby's" die-cut, and the "halloween" die-cut was cut from the new CTMH cartridge Flower Market. These two title pieces were then "colored" with the new CTMH Shimmer Brush to add a little extra shine and glitter to these fun die-cuts.

   For the ghosts, I used the Create-a-Critter 2 cartridge which has a pirate ghost image on it. I then cut the pirate hat off so that I just had these cute ghosts left. I ink distressed the edges in Desert Sand, and added foam tape to pop them off the page. The larger ghost was stamped to complete my title using Black ink and two new CTMH alphabet sets: Marker Alphabet and Bistro Script.

   The mini stars were punched out using an EK Success star border punch and the new CTMH color Tangerine, and the banners on the right side of the layout were made using Slate cardstock and the new CTMH Adventure Fundamentals collection to get the Pansy dots paper. I added a couple mini staples to these to add some more dimension on this side of the layout.

   That's it! It was a simple and quick layout for Halloween, but I love how all the little elements came together. All of my pictures are ~4x6 (I say approx. because they are printed from my Canon Selphy printer and not true 4x6 prints), and I still have a majority of my Jeepers Creepers Workshop kit to play with!

   You can click on any of the links in this post to find the products I used to complete this layout, but if you have any questions or comments, please let me know! I would love to help you re-create this for yourself!

   I hope you have time this week to get crafty yourself! Enjoy your week, and until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

November Newsletter

   This fall is flying by already! My little guy turns 3 months this week, and boy is he changing everyday! I love watching him learn and grow! It's the best thing!

   A new month means a new newsletter packed with CTMH info for you all! If you haven't signed up to receive my newsletter directly, make sure and do that in the left side bar of this page! In the meantime, though, you can get all your news now by clicking on the link below! I think you're going to LOVE the new November promotions, and just in time for the gift giving season, too!

Click here to see Candid Correspondence: November Newsletter

   Let me know if you need assistance scoring these deals for yourself this month! I would love to help you scoop up these amazing goodies! Hope you all are doing well, and enjoy the rest of your week! Until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

Tuesday Tidbit & Last Chance for June Specials

   Happy Tuesday to you all! I hope you're having a great day and enjoying the start to your week! Can you believe it's the last day of June?? I sure can't! I only have a month left of this pregnancy and I can hardly believe it! It's gone way too fast!

   I also can't believe that the 4th of July is this weekend! My house is still slightly under construction and in disarray for the next couple weeks, but I had to get out some festive decorations for my kitchen. Just to add a little pizazz amongst the chaos! 

   Today I want to share with you a quick and easy way to make festive 4th of July decorations this week as a last minute touch for your table arrangements, BBQ decorations, or even just because! I made these table decorations 2 years ago when I had family in town for the 4th! Since then, I have stored them away with my table linens, and get them out every year around this time to jazz up my table once again!

   Here's what you need to make this quick and easy project:

1.) Wooden Skewers
2.) Festive 4th of July paper or stamped paper
3.) Silver or White brads
4.) Washi tape or Liquid Glass
5.)  Foam tape
6.) Artiste Cricut Cartridge

   First, you cut the Accent 1 image from pg 50 of the Artiste handbook at 2 3/4" tall (height). You can cut multiple of these at one time if you are doing one for each place setting. Then cut the same image on pg 50 at 2" tall (height) from your second piece of paper or stamped background. The papers I used were old ones from my stash that I dug out!

   Next, place a brad through the center of the smaller pinwheel (the 2" one). Then add foam tape to the back of it. Adhere this pinwheel to the front of the larger pinwheel.

   Lastly, attach your pinwheels to a wooden skewer. I used thin washi tape to tape my pinwheels to the skewer. However, you could use a dab of Liquid Glass to help hold the skewer in place as well!

   I hope you enjoyed this quick Tuesday Tidbit today! If you have any questions, though, please do not hesitate to shoot me a message or comment! I would love to help you get your holidays decor ready for the weekend!

   Also, don't forget it's the last day of June which means it's the last day to take advantage of all the steals and deals June has to offer! Including the amazing My Crush promotion that gets you a FREE stamp set!

   You can see all the monthly promos under my steals and deals tab at the top of this page, and you can shop my online shop for these specials until midnight tonight! Have a great rest of your week, and until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

Day 3: Wrapping Paper Solutions

    Sorry I didn't get a chance to keep up on my posts these last few days, friends. It has been a run-around, crazy mess in the McQuistan household. Ian was working nights this last week, and it has been a really tough week. He barely had any sleep, was called in to work in the middle of the night a few times, had super sick patients, and was helping battle the atrocious Flu season we have entered.

    I have been up a lot more this week, too, with his night calls. So I have been tired and groggy all this week as well (but not quite in the same way that Ian is I'm sure!!).  I also had a dentist appointment and needed to get some packages together so I could mail them out before the weekend. I needed to take some time to pick up and clean our house a little bit (it was starting to look like a tornado in here). So yeah....I put off the blogging and crafting, and worked on family stuff for awhile.

   We also went to Iowa this last weekend to visit friends and family before Christmas and to attend a family party. This week we need to finish up some last minute shopping, wrapping, and other little things before we head to Wisconsin for my family Christmas. So it's definitely crazy busy!

    So today I'm actually showing you Day 3 of our 12 days of a CTMH Christmas. It's funny because I was going to do this whole feature on creating your own wrapping paper and personalized gift bags, and then last week CTMH posted a similar idea on their blog! So I'm going to feature the same thing today!

    I love the look of personalized gift decor! It's so much fun to make and decorate, and it helps me use up my stash! Plus it really doesn't take long to make, and gives me a reason to get crafty!

A fellow consultant had these CTMH Burlap bags on her blog. They were decorated using the Christmas mini stamps, twine, mini clothespins, and the retired Sparkle & Shine fabric set! I love how cute these little bags are!

Decorate some of CTMH's burlap bags with ribbon, a tag, and some embellishments! These bags are perfect in stockings, for teacher gifts, and for those odd shaped small items that you want to stash away on Christmas Day!

Here are a couple examples of paper gift bags I bought from the Dollar Store and decorated with simple Cricut cuts and embellishments! I love how these turned out, and they were so simple to put together!

Fellow consultant, Joy Tracey, made this gorgeous gift bag using Cricut cuts and glitter paper!

Joy Tracey also made this gift bag! See how awesome it looks with just a couple simple cuts? I love these ideas!

    I also love using Christmas scrapbook paper to make envelopes for my Christmas cards. It's a great way to use up my stash, and to personalize my cards just a little bit more! This is how I do it:

1.) I measure my card that I need an envelop for. This one is almost 5"x7". I then use WRMK Envelope Punch Board to figure out how much paper I need and at what size.

2.) According to the Punch Board, I needed a piece of paper 9 1/2" x 9 1/2". I use pattern paper that is printed on one side and white on the other.

3.) I flip the pattern paper over and score the white side of the paper according to the board instructions.

4.) This is what the scored piece looks like notched and scored.

5.) I then round the corners of my scored piece. There is a corner rounder on the punch board, but mine needs some oil and sharpening. So I chose to use my CTMH rounder which allows me to punch through a couple sheets at a time.

6.) I fold the paper along the scored lines with the pattern on the inside of the envelope.

7.) Last, I run a couple lines of permanent adhesive on either side of the inside flaps, and glue my envelope together. Now I have a fun Christmas envelope to match my homemade Christmas cards! It's super easy to do and doesn't take much time at all! I love it!

    The possibilities are endless! Plus it's a great way to get creative during the hustle and bustle this holiday season! Check out more ideas on personalizing gift packaging and how to make some fun Cricut packages on CTMH's blog today! I hope this has inspired you to get crafty this weekend! Until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

Day 6: Hot Chocolate Bar

    On the 6th day before Christmas CTMH gave to me an amazing idea from fellow consultant Michelle Synder! Today's crafty project comes to you from Michelle's display at Convention this past summer! She had such an amazing presentation that I felt inspired to make it a Crafty Christmas! I want to re-create this amazing display using the Magnetic Chalkboard Frame at my family get together! Without further ado, I want to share with you Michelle's Hot Chocolate Bar!

What You'll Need:

1. Cupcake Boxes
2. Magnetic Chalkboard Frame or Home Decor Frame of your choice
3. Snowhaven Complements
4. Cardstock: Cranberry, Whisper, White Daisy, Black, Kraft,
5.Slate Diagonal Ribbon
6. Whimsy Fundamentals Paper Pack (Glacier pieces)
7. Handwritten Print Alphabet stamp & White Embossing Powder
8. Cricut Collections: Artiste

Michelle used Cricut cut snowflakes and the Snowhaven Complements to accent her Home Decor Frame! You might be wondering how she received a red frame! Well simple...she spray painted it! The chicken wire pops off the back fairly easy, and then you can spray paint the frame whatever color you would like! Michelle then cut out a banner spelling out her title, backed it with cardstock, and added Slate Diagonal ribbon for detail!

For her "Hot Chocolate Bar" she used the CTMH cupcake boxes to store her goodies! One box holds the packs of cocoa, one holds bags of marshmallows, and the other holds candy cane sticks! She decorated each box with cardstock and snowflake diecuts, and added a touch of the Glacier Paper Fundamentals and some Slate Diagonal Ribbon for an added touch! I love Michelle's ideas, and think this one was super cute!

 
    Doesn't Michelle do an amazing job? I hope that her work has inspired you as much as it inspired me this holiday season! If you have any questions about Michelle's display or would like to know more about the products used, let me know! I would love to help you find everything you need to re-create this special display! Have a wonderful Friday, friends, and until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

Day 10: Christmas Card Storage

    Happy Rainy Monday, everyone! I'm excited to share today's 12 Days of a CTMH Christmas with you all! A fellow consultant, Melissa Laverty, posted a really great idea on her blog a couple weeks ago about storing Christmas cards! I loved her idea so much I scraplifted it to share with all of you!

    I love CTMH's 8x8 Kraft Mini Albums! They're perfect for any type of project, and are so much fun to decorate! Today I'm going to show you how to use the Kraft Album to organize all the Christmas cards and photos that you receive this year!

What You'll Need:

1. 8x8 Kraft Album
2. Holiday Happenings Assortment
3. Snowhaven Paper Pack
4. Snowhaven Complements
5. Gold Sequins
6. Sanding Kit
7. Foam Tape
8. Your Christmas Cards

Cover of the Kraft 8x8 Christmas Card Album

    I started by choosing Snowhaven papers that I wanted to use as the base of my album. I chose the Black snowflake pattern and cut it down to 8 5/16" x 8 3/4"! I then sanded the edges of my Snowhaven paper to expose the white core on the sides.

    From here I cut leftover scraps of Snowhaven paper down to add strips of paper on the left side, and added mounted paper behind my sentiment. The "Christmas Cheer" sentiment card can be found in the Holiday Happenings Assortment pack! The large circle embellishment can be found on the Snowhaven Complements pack or, you can do what I did, print extra embellishments on the bottom of your Studio J layouts to cut out and use!

Close up of some Snowhaven embellishments I added to the bottom of my Christmas card Studio J project!

    I popped the sentiment 4"x6" card up with foam tape and added some gold sequins to the cover as well. I still want to decorate the spine with the year and maybe some ribbon, but I haven't gotten to that yet!

    I wanted to cut some "base" cardstock sheets for the inside of my album so that I could mount some of the newsletters and cards that were together (or from one family). I cut Whisper, Glacier, and White Daisy cardstock down to 7 5/8" x 8", and punched holes in them at 1 1/4", 4", and 6 3/4" (and about 3/16" from the edge).

Inside blank pages

    Next I started adding my Christmas cards. Now I'm not an up-to-date scrapbooker. I'm at least 30 years behind (and yes I'm only 31)....so these Christmas cards are actually from 2013! I found them in my "save" stash, though, and started punching holes and inserting them in my album.

   I wanted to make sure my holes lined up on my cards, so I used one of the base sheets to help line up my holes. Then I punched each hole by hand. It sounds tedious, but really it doesn't take long! I was able to get it done in a couple hours!

Open inside front cover and the start of my Christmas cards

View of the side (and I still have room if I wanted to add more)!!

    I staggered the photos, cards, and newsletters throughout the book so that neither top nor bottom was too bulky. For some of the newsletters, I mounted them directly on the base sheets (cutting the newsletters down on the sides if need be).

The newsletter that came with this photo card is mounted on a base sheet behind it. I folded up the bottom so that it wouldn't hang out of the book.

  
    Some of my newsletters, though, were double sided, and I didn't want to glue these down and lose the information. So I came up with a solution. I punched holes in the newsletter with the folded up piece from the bottom in place.

Photos were on the back of this newsletter, so I folded up the bottom and punched holes in it.

  
    However, I still wanted to be able to read the newsletter while it was in the book, so I doctored the bottom flap to flip open.

Newsletter from above flipped open

I was able to flip it because I notched the bottom flap hole to pull apart when needed!

  
    That's it! It was really fun and easy to put together, and it now can be displayed on our bookshelves and compared to this year's Christmas cards!

    I hope you enjoyed this little Christmas project today! I have extra 8x8 Kraft albums on hand if anyone in the area would like to pick one up before the holidays! Otherwise, you can add it to your next order and take advantage of all the December specials going on right now, too!

    Have a great rest of your day, and until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

12 Days of Christmas: CTMH Style

   Happy Saturday everyone! Today is officially 12 days before Christmas! So I thought why not celebrate CTMH style! Starting today I will be sharing Christmas crafty projects and some of my favorite CTMH products for this holiday season!

   Today I want to kick off the 12 days of Christmas by sharing my favorite color palette this holiday season! This year I am loving the look of metallics in Christmas home decor and crafty projects.

This is a card I made last year for an embossing workshop I had last December, but I love the look of mixing silver and gold embossing powders and White Daisy ink!

A Christmas card by consultant Vicki Wizniuk that is absolutely breathtaking! She used the gold polka dot washi tape (Z1920), tan glitter paper (Z1830), gold shimmer trim (Z1985), gold sequins (Z2012), and gold embossing powder (Z2066) on this amazing card!

Vicki also made this awesome card using simple embossing and stamping

The new CTMH Holiday Happenings My Crust book (Z2098) has touches of gold throughout the book as well! Plus who doesn't like a vintage holiday look?? I love this book!

A peek at all of the pieces in the Holiday Assortment pack (Z2062)! I spy gold accent pieces! Love love love this whole collection!

   Do you love the look of metallics this holiday season?  What crafty projects have you made this holiday season using metallics? I would love to see what you all have been up to this year! 

   If you can't wait to get your hands on some of these amazing products to make your own metallic decor, shop my Online Shop today to get all of these goodies and more! Happy 12 days of Christmas everyone, and until next time:

Here's to live, love, and creativity!

Christmas Time

    It's been awhile since I posted on the blog, and I apologize for that! I have been home, but busy decorating the house, entertaining family, and enjoying my favorite time of year!

    Christmas is so many things for me, but I think my absolute favorite part of Christmas is the giving! I love giving (and most of you that know me already know that)! I love shopping for other people, the surprise of finding the perfect gift that they didn't ask for, and the random acts of kindness that continue all season long!

    It's a season so full of hope and love, and, for me, is very inspiring! I hope you all get to feel this same way this year, and I hope that the feeling carries through in 2015!

    This is a short post today, but I just wanted to share some special thoughts on this December morning! Have a wonderful Friday, everyone, and until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!

Cricut Weekend

   Thank goodness it's Saturday, right?? I hope you all had a wonderful week! It's been cold cold cold up here so I have spent most of the week indoors trying to stay warm!

   I also have been trying to catch up on all the projects and artwork that I want to show all of you! Do you ever start a project list?? I have a check list for projects I want to complete, and I swear it grows every day!

   The last two weeks, though, I have been able to make more creative time, and am starting to cross off projects from my crazy to-do list!

   Today I want to share with you the project we created during last week's Crafting with Cricut class! This was a super fun project to design! I knew going into my creative process that I wanted to combine Artbooking and Artfully sent on one project, but I wasn't sure how I was going to tackle that.

   I decided to use the super cute Christmas tree pop-up card from Artfully Sent, and the background and icons from the Artbooking cartridge! I paired those die-cuts with the Yuletide Carol paper pack and matching Complements to get a super cute Christmas display!

Full display layout

   I was really pleased with how this turned out, but I have to be honest. I designed and made it in less than an hour because I was sleep deprived and really didn't think about it. Sometimes I think that coming up with a new project is way easier if you stop thinking about it and just start doing. So that's what I did, and I love how it turned out!

Close-up of the tree cut from the Pop-up card from the Artfully Sent cartridge

Close-up of the deer from the Artbooking cartridge

Close-up of the top of the display layout showing the Yuletide papers and Complements

   Are you wondering how I cut the border around the Yuletide cream paper? Well let me share a little Cricut Craft Room secret.....you can take an image and choose what you want to cut from it by selecting "Hide Contour".

Close-up of the gold shimmer trim under the Artbooking overlay border

   The image I started with was the overlay from the travel mini-album on the Artbooking cartridge! Then I selected "Hide Contour", and selected all the clouds and airplanes to tell CCR not to cut them. This left me with just the border to cut out! I love this trick! Definitely try this....the possibilities are endless!

Overlay I started with in CCR

Select the image and the "Hide Contour" button will show up on the bottom left-side

When you select the images you don't want to cut they show up grey. Then when you hit exit, the images will fill in solid and not cut. This is my favorite trick ever!

Display layout in the Colonial White Shadow Box frame from Close to My Heart

   Isn't this the best?? If you like this tip, you should sign up for my Candid Cricut Club and attend my next Crafting with Cricut class! We get to play with fun tips and tricks like this every time! It's the best!

   If you have any questions, please let me know! I would love to help you make this fun shadow box display for yourself! Have a great rest of your day and enjoy your weekend! I hope you get time to be crafty this weekend, and until next time:

Here's to life, love, and creativity!