2011 Christmas Banner

I LOVE making banners to display in my home.  In the past few years I have made Birthday Banners, Easter Banners, Halloween Banners, Thanksgiving Banners....it was finally time to tackle the all important Christmas Banner ! 

I collect Santas...not just a few, at last count I had about 200 that I display in various rooms of my home and my Christmas tree is decorated with about 300 plus santa ornaments.  So to say I like Santas is an understatement!  So I naturally gravitated towards making a Christmas Banner featuring Santa.

Each banner piece was made from a shaped piece of heavy cardstock, covered with patterned paper with a crepe paper border and then decorated with lots of Christmas embellishment treastures. On three of the pieces I attached the glittered letters Ho...when hung up, it now says HO HO HO !

Without further ado....here is my Christmas Banner, piece by piece.

When I was little I asked Santa one year, " please define good?

Ha, Ha.  I Found this metal piece that had that on it and just had to put it on my banner.

Close Up  of this first piece.  I added chipboard shapes and

added stickles to give them sparkle!

On this banner piece the Merry Christmas is suspended above

the background to give it a lot of dimension !

My favorite banner piece is this one!

I found the perfect vintage Santa paper for the background. 

For the 25 I used silver german glass glitter to cover the chipboard,

it looks amazing up close.  I used some vintage tinsel around the edges

 of the crepe paper.  I added more to the HO piece here...a glittered Believe,

a Santa and a red sleigh bell !

Again on this piece, I suspended the Joy over the

banner piece.

This piece is a tribute to Christmas Carols. I used

Joy to the World music paper as background.

And added titles from some of my favorite christmas songs. 

Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree,  etc.

Close up of this piece.  All the images are added on and popped up

for added dimension. And of course, more glitter !!

And here is the banner all strung up on a red and green tinsel garland.

Sorry the picture isn't so great but you get the idea of how it looks now all hung up !

Cricut Circle Blogiversary - Sketch Challenge

One of the perks of being a Cricut Circle member is that we get to participate in craft challenges using our Cricut products for a chance to win awesome prizes.  The Circle is celebrating the Blog Anniversary with an even more spectacular giveaway.  I have decided to participate in a few of them and will be posting pics of my Challenge Entries to share with all of you too.

First up is my entry for a chance to win an Cricut Imagine (it's the only Cricut machine I don't already own) she says sheepishly. 

We are supposed to use this sketch they provided and create any project of our choice using at least two different Cricut cuts from any cartridge we prefer. 

Here is my entry based on the sketch

The Cricut cuts used on this card are all from the new Creative Memories Art Philsophy cartridge including the card base.  And I also used my new Snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder too.  As you can see, I added some Crystal Stickles to add that special touch to the die cut snowflakes and the embossed piece.  The card is gorgous in person but the shiny paper I choose was a little hard to photograph to get the luscious colors to show better. 

Good luck to all others who enter the contest too!

It's Shopping and Wrapping Time !

My Christmas shopping is well in hand and now it is time to start the wrapping !  I love the wrapping part....I know that sounds crazy since most people don't enjoy that part.  This year I decided that each family member will receive a gift in a handmade gift bag.  I spent last night making about 18 bags.  It was so easy since I used my Cricut to cut out embellishments with Gingerbread seasonal cart and Lacy Labels and Winter Frolics for the tags.  I used wonderful Christmas patterned paper from Provo Craft which is Holiday Slab 5.

I won't bore you with all 18 bags but here are a few of my favorites I made. Hope it inspires you to take a moment to make your gift giving a little extra special for those you love.

  Ho Ho Ho....Merry Christmas to all !

Welcome to Holiday Wishes Blog Hop

                                                       

Kathryn aka Wamfamily over on the Cricut Circle Message board had a wonderful idea to host a Christmas inspired Blog Hop. So 13 of us will be posting pictures of holiday projects today that we have made to share and hopefully inspire you.

If you haven't done a blog hop before, no worries.  Just start at the top blog listed and jump to the next one on the list until you have visited all 13 blogs.  Some of the hop hostesses are even offering blog candy (giveaway) so be sure and follow any directions they have provided to submit your entry.

Here is a list to help you on your Holiday Wishes Blog Hopping today:
1) Wamfamily - http://wamfamily.blogspot.com/  - HOSTESS and START of BLOG HOP
2) Scrappin Nanapuddin - http://scrappin-nanapuddin.blogspot.com/
3) Mandy - http://mandys-scrap.blogspot.com/
4) JenniferHawkins2 - http://scrapaholicjen.blogspot.com/
5) CraftyScentiments - http://www.craftyscentiments.com/
6) TheScrapbookGirl - http://www.cricutconfessions.com/
7) Lechristina3 - http://allthingscrafty3.blogspot.com/
8) ABrooks86 - http://almabrooksblog.blogspot.com/
9) LisaKnight - http://www.cricutingwithlisa.blogspot.com/
10) Makeupgirl217 - http://217creations.blogspot.com/
11) Greengirl - http://greengirlscraps.blogspot.com/
12) ScrapHappyDeb - http://debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com/ - YOU ARE HERE
13) Bling Queen - http://lvscrappin.blogspot.com/

HAPPY HOLIDAYS Gift Set

I made a holiday wrapper to go around a delicious smelling Christmas jar candle and a cute matching gift bag to give as gifts this year to friends.   Who doesn't love the sweet smell of Christmas throughout the holiday? This is my entry in the monthly Cricut Circle challenge.  We were supposed to make a gift project using a  tag, use 2 cricut cuts or more, a sentiment, the color red and some ribbon. 

GIFT BAG CLOSE UP

TAG CLOSE UP

CANDLE CLOSE UP

Products Used: Medium Kraft Gift Bag, Provo Craft Holiday Slab 5 for pattern paper, Bazzill Card Stock and American Crafts Foil Cardstock, Martha Stewart SNOW glitter and glue. Cricut Carts used: Gingerbread Seasonal for the Snowman, Christmas Cheer for the snowflakes and Tags, Bags, Boxes and More for the Tag and Lacy Labels for the for the candle label, Winter Frolic for the Happy Holidays saying.


MY BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY

I just love the Gingerbread Seasonal Cartridge I used to make the Snowman so I am giving one away to a lucky winner. 

To win my blog candy do the following: 1) Become a follower of my blog if you are not already AND 
2) leave me a comment about my Blog Hop Projectby 5 pm CST on Sunday, December 12th.   Be sure and leave how to contact you on your comment.  Winner will be announced by 9 pm on December 12th.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays to you all....You should be hopping over to the last but not least wonderful blog of Bling Queen - http://lvscrappin.blogspot.com/. 

Christmas Cards are on their way !

This year I decided to hand make all my Christmas cards...all 60 of them !  What was I thinking?  It took me several days to get them all made but I am happy with how they turned out.  They are in the mail and heading to their intended destinations so I hope the recipients like them.

I made 4 different cards using some Tim Holtz holiday stamps.  This is the first time I have ever hand colored stamped images before using my Copic markers and Ranger distress inks.  It was a lot of work doing this many but I think I have it mastered now :)
 
For background papers I used some lovely My Minds Eye holiday papers and Bazzill cardstock.  Not sure if in the pictures if you can see all the pretty glitter and embossed texture of the patterned papers but they helped make the cards festive.  I also added Stickles to Santas beards and on some snowflakes with the Reindeer card.

 I used a cute custom made stamp on the back of each card too to personalize it.

Hope everyone likes the cards.  I just might start working on my cards for next year in July !