White Pines Joy

When I was unpacking my Christmas decorations a few weeks ago, I came across these "JOY" letters that I decorated several years back. They were due to be refurbished and what they needed was some White Pines love!

Here is what the letters looked like before~

Here are the new letters, much more joyful!

Please take a look at each letter. I've included some of the White Pines complements and other embellishments to dress up each one.

"JOY" sits on a shelf in my dining room with some other handmade wall words.

 If you would like to add some White Pines to your Holiday decor, be sure to order items from the collection before December 31st! The Holiday Expressions catalog will retire at the end of the month and you will no longer be able to order these products.

Believe Chalkboard Decor

Take a look into my house, specifically my dining nook! Here I created a little display on a wall shelf using some handmade items. A believe banner, some ball jar snow globes and a decorated chalkboard.

While the banner and snow globes are super cute, I really want to share this festive chalkboard with you! To decorate it I used pieces from the My Crush Holiday Happenings assortment and badge buttons. I mixed some of our family pictures with the big cards, small cards and envelopes. I even turned the badge buttons into magnets as this board is not only for chalk, but magnetic as well!

Making the magnets was ridiculously easy! The adorable buttons already have adhesive on the back. I simply stuck them to these magnets that I picked at Walmart. I was a little leery of the adhesive and thought it might need reinforcement, but so far so good! No lost buttons lying on the floor beneath the shelf!

Here is a close up of the snowflake button with a large card, a small card and a picture of two cutie pies!

My Crush Holiday Happenings assortment and badge buttons do not need to be used as suggested in the Idea Book. Use them on a chalkboard, a scrapbooking page, incorporate them to make a banner or cards! Next, I will show you how I incorporated them in a brand new mini Kraft book available in the new Seasonal Expressions 1 book!

Christmas Yuletide Shadow Box

I created this shadow box last month to display at my Holiday Open House. The frame is on page 163 of the Annual Inspirations Idea Book. It comes in a Black finish or as I chose for my project a Colonial White finish. I chose to use almost one solid sheet of the Yuletide paper for the entire page, however I trimmed just a little bit on all the edges to adhere it to a dark green base. That way it really stands out in the frame. The photo I chose is actually from last year, but one of my favorite pictures of me with my almost grown kids!? I added some grosgrain ribbon, complements, zip strips and lots of gold glittery sparkles.

The Details~

 

a close up~

I decided to display my shadow box on the fire mantle this year.

 

Check out Santa-man chillaxing in his sleigh!! I "believe" in throwing in some whimsical fun into a classy and elegant display!!

The shadow box and Yuletide papers truly are gorgeous any way you display it. Close To My Heart makes it easy for you to make your Holiday homemade!

Sparkle & Shine Wreaths

Last Friday my group of ladies got together with me to create these curly ribbon wreaths. We used the Sparkle & Shine papers from the Holidays from the Heart gift guide. Cutting and curling the paper is a little time consuming, but we found plenty to talk and laugh about while we worked. I decided on a paper bow cut from the Artiste cartridge to finish it off. It has a small "joy" sentiment centered on a striped rosette.

Here are the ladies with their completed wreaths. Full of laughs and fun every time we get together!

Pear & Partridge Frame

Tomorrow is my Pear & Partridge frame class. The bracket frame is a new item from the Winter Idea Book. With the Cricut and some beautiful Holiday Dimensional Elements, this frame becomes a lovely Christmas decoration quickly! All that's left is to add a family photograph.

 

Believe Banners

Hope you haven't seen enough Holiday banners, because I have two more for you today! They are both "believe" banners made almost entirely from the Cricut AP cartridge. The first one is more a traditional home made banner. It uses the colors of colonial white, barn red, kraft and new england ivy. I joined the pennants together with the lovely striped chocolate grosgrain ribbon. I kept it very simple.

This believe banner is more playful and has lots of fun ribbons and twine. Most of the pieces were cut using the Cricut AP cartridge except the scallop circles that the letters are adhered to. The color combination is similar to the other except lighter shades of red (cranberry)and green (garden green).

I have it hanging here above my Tai Pan Trading snowmen I picked up last year at the after Christmas clearance sale. They are soooo cute!

My daughter said, "Mom, we have too many believe banners in the house." I told her that one of them might become a gift for someone.... I wonder who might like one?!?!