Hello to....

our new team! But not QUITE yet... here are just a few sneak peeks of their work to give you a little taste of what you have in store for the next few months of inspiration!

Make sure to come back tomorrow to begin meeting our team!

(Oh and p.s.... I'll still be here too!) 

Goodbyes and Hellos!

As 2013 winds down, our time with some of our designers from this year also comes to a close. We want to say a great big THANK YOU to our amazing design team. Without them, we could not do it! They help us stay inspired, come up with new ideas for old products, and see the kits in different lights. You guys are amazing! Thanks for all your hard work Veronica Milan, Gretchen McElveen, Julie Bonner, and Cassandra Cyr! A special thanks to our wonderful partner, Christie Welch!

I wanted to share a few of MY favorites of these great designers from this year... make sure to scroll back through the blog to continued to be inspired!

From Julie Bonner- I loved this page from her Project Life in August!



From Gretchen McElveen- one of her amazing cards!

From Cassandra Cyr- a beautiful layout with cool techniques! 

And this happy layout from Veronica Milan! 

Thanks again, you wonderful people, you! 

Check back in this evening for some sneak peeks from our new team! 

Don't Forget Those Thank You Cards . . .

As the holiday season is nearing it's end, it's time to thank all those special family & friends in your lives.  Today I have two cards to share that I created using the Ribbon Candy kit.

My first card has a fun layering of bright & cheery patterned papers from the kit.  I just LOVED those skinny Glitz alphas & thought the cream stood out so nicely against the black chalkboard paper.

The second card is full of subtle neutrals & a touch of glitz.  Those gorgeous star sequins were perfect for filling the circle background that I cut with my Cameo!

Thanks so much for stopping by :)

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a very very merry Christmas!

Enjoy the day!

{made with this month's "Ribbon Candy" kit}

Our December Memories- A Thrill of Hope

I absolutely treasure our December memory albums that we have. So do my kids. I keep them put away with all our Christmas story books and fill a big basket with them every December 1. We all love flipping through them. So, as I have realized, a December Daily album is not easy for me to keep up with, a simple December memories album is completely achievable. 

This year, I used the Ribbon Candy kit  and the Heidi Swapp File Kit to create the album. 

I simply selected a few of my favorite photos and memories from this month to highlight. For the cover, I used a printable from the children's Bible we read our Advent stories from, the Jesus Storybook Bible. 

Inside the first spread is a picture of my oldest after we got out from seeing "Frozen" at the beginning of this month. The picture reminded me of one of my favorite lines from the Christmas hymn "O Come O Come Emmanuel." It's so beautiful and haunting and hopeful.

A little tip I read on faking a calligraphy style handwriting is to draw a second, thicker line on every "downstroke" your pen makes. I think it looks so pretty. 

In keeping with the Christmas carol them, I added two titles here that coordinate with the photos.

I have quite the little note writer in my family, so the perfect place to save them would be inside one of the folders! One of the notes is her Christmas wish list, so I put it along with our photo of St. Nick and one of the lines from "The Night Before Christmas." I have such sweet memories of my dad reading that to us every Christmas eve... and my dad totally embodied the spirit of St. Nick. I can't read it without thinking of him. 

Share with us in the comments a link to your Christmas albums! I'd love to see them!

Ribbon Candy PL Spread!!

Forgive me, as this post should have been up on Friday.  Amidst the craziness of the last few weeks before Christmas, there has been little time for this favorite hobby of mine :)  I am happy to share one of my most recent Project Life spreads - FULL of goodies from both the Ribbon Candy main and PL kits!!



I couldn't resist using that gorgeous gold foil star patterned paper in my title block!!!



With so many bits & pieces in both kits, I had a blast layering up some stickers and die-cuts on top of my photos :)



Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season!!  Thanks for stopping by :)

The countdown is on...

One more week until Christmas!

It's not too late to make and send out cards!

Here's an idea to help you out.

I used the "Ribbon Candy" kit to make this!

Merry Christmas and thanks for stopping by today!

:)

Mini Christmas Ornaments

Every year, I end up going to a party or two that involves bringing an ornament to swap or give... and every year, I have the darn hardest time just simply buying one (which would be the easiest route) and always want to make one! 

I have a little stash of these cute tiny frame found in the Dollar Section of Michael's. 

I just used the Candy Ribbon kit to make some seasonal insides for them, and hot glued a ribbon on back... easy and unique! 

And a few more, that still need some ribbon....

And while I had the kit out on my desk, I went ahead and made a quick card. Might as well be prepared, right? :)

Time To "Wrap It Up"!!!!

With only two weeks left until Christmas, it's a good time to start wrapping up those presents :)  I kept mine simple this year with just red and kraft paper, some twine, a doily, and a fun little tag!!  Here's a few I just wrapped up - the tags were created using cut files from Lori Whitlock and supplies from the Ribbon Candy kit :)









Have a fabulous weekend & thanks for stopping by!!!

Two Different Christmas Card Styles

Happy Thursday everyone! I'm stopping by to share two quick Christmas cards that showcase two different styles of Christmas crafting.  Both are made using Noel Mignon kits from Christmas past :) I love how her kits are so timeless and I can use leftovers even years later!

This first card is a nod to the bright and fun colors of Christmas.  Keeping things colorful I used light blues, vibrant reds, pink accents, and of course some bling to add cheer to this non-traditional Christmas card.

This next card goes the traditional route- keeping things a little more classy and sophisticated by using browns, burgundy, ivory, and a wood veneer shape. I love all the little bits and pieces in Noel's kits and for this card I just went crazy layering everything I could get my hands on :)

Those are my projects for today! If you haven't picked up the Ribbon Candy PL or full size kit make sure you do so!  This years Christmas kit is the perfect combination of both of the styles I shared above, so you'll be able to combine colorful and sophistication with ease :)

Gift bag idea

OK raise your hand if you are thrifty {coughcoughcheapcough} like me and hate to pay more than like $1 for gift bags??! 

They are out there if you look hard enough but inexpensive gift bags aren't around every turn.

So sometimes I resort to just making my own. 

And it does not have to take a lot of time!

{time is money, right??!}

Here are a couple of plain paper bags that I dressed up with some of the paper, stickers, & ribbon from the "Ribbon Candy" kit. 

Fold the top of the bag to close it.

Then all you need is hole punch & a little adhesive to attach everything to the bag. 

Punch 2 holes at the top and thread your ribbon through the holes. 

Then decorate at will!

Cheap, easy, and cute!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today.

:)

Merry Christmas!

Sketch Time!!

It's the first Friday of the month which means SKETCH TIME!!!  Here is this month's sketch focusing on clean lines & LOTS of pics!!!



I excitedly broke into my AWESOME Ribbon Candy kit this week!!!  Full of cheery holiday colors & patterns, as well as lots of adorable embellishments, this kit was so much fun to play with!!



On each photo I used the teeny, tiny (& adorable) little October Afternoon word stickers.  The circle clip might be my favorite embellishment ever!!!  I love how easy it was to accent a photo by clipping this little guy on :)



My title work was a mix of both alphas in the kit.  Of course I LOVED the script Thickers in red (Thickers addict over here!!) and the October Afternoon little black script alphas were just perfect to fit into that little tag :)



Ready to join us for this month's challenge?  As usual, a $10 credit to the Noel Mignon store is up for grabs!!  Your entry to this challenge is due Friday December 27th .  Once you have completed your entry, be sure to post it in our Facebook group.   Can't wait to see what you all come up with :)