Christmas Eve Kisses

All the Christmas cards have been sent, the gifts are wrapped under the tree and the cookies are all baked! I wanted to wrap up one last little treat for the kids. I found these cute Santa hat Hershey Kisses at Target. I bought a few packages as they are exclusive to Target and I had a hunch that they would sell out fast....and they did! I wanted to package them in a cute way so I started searching Pinterest. I found a Santa Sleigh that I considered, but then I saw these cute Santa hats. That was perfect, now to figure out how to make them. I studied the picture and started experimenting. Here is what the result was.

Each hat holds 5 kisses. The hat has a scalloped brim and a glittery pom~pom on the end. If you follow me on Instagram you will see how I further wrapped these up with some green ribbon and a polka dot tag.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you have a happy Christmas Eve filled with something sweet!

3D Christmas Cards

I recently found a new website that offers some wonderful SVG files that are compatible with your Cricut Explore machines. The site is called Dreaming Tree. As soon as I saw these cards I knew that they would be amazing additions to my Design Space!

They are called Bendi cards and you can purchase them individually or in a bundle. Each layer cuts out beautifully and comes together in an awesome 3D display.

I started with the Believe card and envelope.

All of my papers and cardstocks are Close To My Heart from various collections. They require their own envelope, because they are larger and thicker than normal cards. The up side to that is these cards, when assembled are more of a display than just a greeting card!

Here is a look at the other cards offered in this bundle.

The other cards are called Ode to Joy and Silent Night. Do you have a favorite?

Be sure to check out the Dreaming Tree website. I really hope they create more Bendi cards for every season!

A Coffee Key Chain

Who doesn't love getting a gift card for your favorite coffee establishment? Especially when it's super cute and accompanied by a Base & Bling key chain!

Have you seen these adorable Starbucks cup gift cards that are designed to attach to your key ring? I couldn't pass them up, they are so cute and look amazing with a little penguin Base & Bling pendant.

This is just one idea for giving a gift card. Close To My Heart has many unique options to present those cards to your recipients. Just ask me how?! :)

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.

Have a Cup of Cheer

Tomorrow I will get to celebrate with the students I teach. We are having a little Christmas party in class and will play some fun games. I can't wait to give them these cocoa treat bags I made using a printable tag and Close To My Heart products of course!

I filled the Ruby and Lagoon treat bags with some cocoa mix, mini marshmallows and chocolate dipped candy canes. They wrapped up easily with a free printable I found on Pinterest and some red twine.

I am entering this again in Heart 2 Heart Challenges this week, as these are truly a gift from my heart. I hope the kiddo's love them and enjoy a cup of cocoa over their Winter break! {and hopefully they get out all their wild energy before they return!!} :)

Elf Themed Christmas Party and Exchange

This past weekend I held my annual Christmas party with my Close To My Heart customers. We usually do a card exchange, eat some goodies and like last year offered a Hot Cocoa buffet which has become a favorite tradition now! This year instead of cards we decided to do an ABC challenge project. We exchange cards in our monthly card all year long, so I thought it would be fun to make a project that is Anything But a Card! Boy! Did we have a mix of fun projects!

Last month in a search for another project I came across a SVG cut of witches legs and boots. I knew immediately that I wanted to turn them into Buddy the elf legs with his iconic yellow tights and curly elf shoes. I thought it would be whimsical to throw them upside down in a pop-up box. From that project I decided to make the entire party an Elf theme. We had lots of yellow and green decor, chocolate, candy canes and sugar. The only difference is that the Cocoa wasn't crappy, it was delicious!! Here is a collage of some of the pictures from the party.

After we snacked a bit and filled our hot cocoa cups, we got to work. Look at all of the fun projects we made.

First, is the pop-up box I created. I hope it would be Elf approved!

Look at this cute purse of chocolates! Yum!

Perhaps you would like a tin of chocolate!

These nuggets of chocolate are not only sweet, but deliver a special message! You might say they are nuggets of wisdom!

A fancy pillow box can hold all sorts of treasures for your loved ones!

This darling snowman holds something yummy in his tummy!

All of those packages and bags need some tags. These are decorated beautifully and ready to adorn those special gifts!

Lastly, I wanted to make a final little gift for all of the ladies. I used the holiday treat bags and dressed them up in the Elf theme. I filled them with some kisses and an assortment of enamel and glitter gems. Don't they just make you smile...smiling is my favorite!

{I am submitting these Elf treat bags to the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog as they fit their challenge this week; gifts from the heart!}

Besides the goodies bags, my customers were also treated to a sneak peek of the new Seasonal Expressions Idea Book which goes live on January 1st of 2016! What lucky girls! I'll have some sneak peeks here on my Blog of some of the projects I have created soon.

I'd say this was a fun day and reminds me what the Holidays are all about....being together, laughing and getting crafty!

Giving Peace

Today I am sharing a card made especially for a little girl in New York. The story has been on the news and throughout Social Media about Safyre, an 8 year old girl that lost her dad and 3 other siblings in a house fire in 2013. Her wish is to receive cards from around the world this Christmas. Happy to help, I used some inspiration from the Freshly Made Sketches and the lovely White Pines PML cards.

I added the PML card with just the simple word of 'Peace' to some gold glitter scalloped paper and some topiary green fundamental papers. I dressed up the PML card just a bit by stamping some leaves & sprigs and adhering a pinecone White Pines badge button. A beautiful card, with a simple message, to a sweet little girl.

 

Joy to the World...and a Gold Glitter Deer

I have another deer head for you today! {This week may very well have a deer theme?!} This time I cut the deer head on gold glitter paper with my Cricut Explore. It sits so pretty atop a White Pines PML card. These cards are typically intended to be used in pocket scrapbooking, but as you can see they complement a greeting card beautifully!

I am also entering this card in Heart 2 Heart Challenges this week as a revisit, or rewind,  to the Holiday Expressions product challenge!

 The White Pines collection will only be available until December 31st.

Holiday Cheer my Deer

Today I created a card for both Freshly Made Sketches and the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog. I have been slightly obsessed with the deer head decor that's trending everywhere lately! I've used the sketch on FMS in which the deer nicely dressed up the tag portion of the card. I also incorporated the White Pines paper and stamps which is part of the "Holiday Expressions Product" challenge on H2H!

Holiday Bling

The Holiday Expressions catalog introduced us to some new Christmas edition Base & Bling charms and style sheet. I will have these new items available for my customers during our annual Christmas Exchange Party just one week from today. They will get the opportunity to design necklaces of all shapes or even a key chain. They can spoil themselves with some handmade jewelry or get a head start on Christmas gifts.

The new style sheet is adorable and offers critters, floral's and sentiments. The charms include red drops, jingle bells and snowflakes! Here is just one necklace I created to display as inspiration.

Here are a few more ideas from the book~

 Take a look at the cute style sheet! They can be left square or you can easily use the 1" circle punch for the round frame.

I'll let you in on a little secret.....I've recently discovered that the newest Seasonal Expressions book arriving next month contains a fabulous edition to the Base & Bling collection making the necklaces even easier to give as gifts. I can't tell you what it is now! My lucky customers will get a sneak peek at our Christmas party! I'm so excited!!

New Specials in December

December has lots of new specials for you! Be sure to check out the Current Specials tab at the top to see the Stamp of the Month and the new Everyday Life 2016 planner system!

Also, December is your last chance to purchase any items from the Holiday Expressions book before they retire!

Family Gatherings with White Pines

Can I just say how adorable the little critters of White Pines collection is. You will find these cuties in the Compliments along with some titles and embellishments. The colors all blend perfectly with soft blues and bright, festive reds. Take a look at this two-page layout.

{left side}

{right side}

This collection can be found in the Holiday Expressions book. Be sure to grab this collection before the end of the month as it will expire. You are going to have so much fun scrapping your Holiday memories!