goodbye 2014!

It is hard for me to believe that this year is just about over.

It has been a great year for me- lots of ups and downs but a great year overall.

I decided that I need to slow down and remember a few things about this year that I might otherwise forget so I had each of my kids fill out a questionnaire this morning, kind of an interview-type thing, and based my layout on their answers.

There are lots of similar interview-ish forms online that you can find doing a search.

I used this one that I found on Pinterest.

For this page I used the Cable Knit kit once again, sticking to the pink, red, blue hues mixed with some woodgrain and that cute star print that I love!

I trimmed a scalloped piece from the Fancy Pants Oh Deer! paper and added it to the edge of the Jillibean woodgrain piece. 

I really like the look of handcut letters and numbers for titles so I gave it a go here. I just freehanded some numbers, cut them out and then used my black ink pen to make the outlines and added some stars from the Pink Paislee sticker sheets in the kit. I once again added some faux stitching detail to the green Fancy Pants letters. 

We hope that you have a safe and fun New Year's Eve! 

Welcome to our Daily Diary Team: Mindi Niebuhr!

We are excited to add Mindi to our team for inspiring us with the Daily Diary kit! 

We had her send us a little about herself:

Hi I'm Mindi Niebuhr and I am super excited to be on the design team for Noel Mignon ! I grew up in Utah but moved to California back in 2011. I live here with my wonderful husband and three great kiddos. I have been scrapbooking ever since I can remember, 17 years or so. I made the switch over to the Project Life back in 2009 when it first was introduced and have been hooked ever since. I also love photography, sleeping in, watching t.v. and movies, spending time with my family, a pinterest pinner, beach days, road trips, and decorating/working on our new house that we built. I am super excited to get some scrapbooking done this coming year as last year I got so wrapped up with home projects that my scrapbooking took a back seat. In the past I have taught scrapbooking classes, been on several local scrapbook store design teams, been on the Simple Stories design team and I am so thrilled to be with you all this year. 

If you would like to keep up with Mindi, check her out at these places: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindi.niebuhr

Instagram: http://instagram.com/mindiniebuhr/

Blog: http://www.niebuhrchicks.blogspot.com/

The time has come...

For me to say goodbye. This has been an amazing year as a part of the awesome team, community. Things and people change, and it is time for me to move on and make room for new possibilities for both myself and this club! I have so enjoyed the time here and getting to know everyone, you all are some of the most talented and sweetest people I have encountered in the online scrapbooking community, and I feel honored for the opportunity to have been inspired by and maybe inspired you all just a little! For my last post, I am taking a cue from Deanna, and sharing some of my favorite projects from the past year.

I am so grateful to Noel, Virginia, my team mates, and all of you for making this an amazing year. Some of my favorite layouts have come from these kits and inspiration from all of you. Thank you! Have a happy new year, and make sure to take the time to create something you love!

All good things...

...must come to an end.  I'm so sad to announce that this is my last post as a Noel Mignon designer. I have absolutely loved my time working for Noel and with all the girls on the team, and will most definitely cheer on everyone from the sidelines. However, life is simply getting the best of me right now. We are in the process of building a house, which has proven extremely stressful. I've also semi re-entered the working world by joining the staff of our church part time. So between my "normal" duties as wife and mother, chauffeur, and coach, I've added a bit more to my plate. And sadly, there is simply no more time to create.

So for today's post I thought I'd do a quick look back at some of my favorite projects I've created with Noel's fabulous kits. It's kind of a Throwback Thursday or Flashback Friday type of post just on a Saturday.

I owe a HUGE thank you to Noel for believing in me, for letting me play with these amazing kits, and for being a fabulous"boss". She's terrific to work for! I also want to thank Virginia for coordinating our team, and for being such a super help with all the little details, and a thank you to my teammates who have been so fun to get to know and to work with.  Thank you all! I hope you've had a fantastic Christmas and have a big bright 2015!!

MMMwah!  Love you all!

I made you a little freebie! After Christmas Thank You Cards!

Happy Day after Christmas! I hope today is a relaxing, restful day for you. I always love this "nothing" time right after Christmas... it's luxurious to rest in it! 

Before Christmas slips too far past us, I wanted to make some thank you cards for all the kindness and generosity shown to us. 

Using remnants of the Cable Knit kit, I could make these look wintery without being over the top Christmassy. 

And to help you in your endeavors, I made a printable sheet of handwritten thank you sentiments for your printing pleasure! 

Merry Christmas Eve and how to scrap your holiday card

Merry Christmas Eve to you!

Today I have a quick post for you but I wanted to share how I scrapped my holiday card for this year.

Each year our family does a photo card and each year I like to create a scrapbook page showcasing that card. This year I've used the Cable Knit kit and it goes perfectly with the colors in our family picture.

I used a patterned paper background once again, layering two patterned papers and trimming just about 1/4" all the way around the grid paper so that the woodgrain paper shows. 

I've used a fun mix of the embellishments in the kit (gold bow, wood veneer, red lace trim, enamel dots) as accents on my page.

The candy cane Thickers are one of my favorite parts of the kit! 

I've also added a few stickers and a tag from the Fancy Pants Oh Deer! collection and some Pink Paislee stars. I used some My Mind's Eye enamel stickers and pulled out the gold glitter glue from a past kit once again. I sure hope we get some more of that in future kits because I love it! 

I just want to wish you all a very safe and merry Christmas to you and your loved ones from all of us here at Noel Mignon. May your days be merry and bright and may you create lots of memories to scrap and share with all of us!

Easy Peasy, Christmas Chreasy!

Or something like that... I've never been good at naming blog posts. Winky winky.

So today I just wanted to stop in quickly to show you a card that I made for my mother-in-law to hold one of her Christmas gifts. So it's a card slash giftwrap kind of post...

I made a fairly simple card, without any dimension to it at all. Mostly because it was quick and easy that way, but also because my Mother-in-Law doesn't really like a lot of "stuff" globbed on. So thankfully, her preference for a more simplistic design worked in my favor! All I had to do was make a card base and cut a mat for the 4x6 card from the Cable Knit Daily Diary kit and glue it all together.

Inside the card, I just glued down another 4x6 card that could accommodate the message I wanted to write.

Usually, I leave an envelope it's plain ol' utilitarian self. But since this would be sitting under the tree, I figured I should dress her up a bit. To do this, I just cut a scrap of the same paper I used to mat the card on the front of the card, and a scrap of the same paper I used for the card base. Then, I wrapped a piece of that awesome kraft tape from the Maple Creek kit around the whole card, and decorated up the front of that with a tag, a piece of that cute tinsel string, and a wood veneer from the Cable Knit kit. The snowflake was from my stash. So now the envelope has a "ribbon" that my MIL can unwrap, making this boring card and envelope feel a little more like an exciting gift. Which it is. Cause it's from me and all. Again with the winky winky...

I hope you are all enjoying this Christmas week so far! This year, Christmas is at our house, so I am running around like a crazy person today, getting all the last-minute cleaning, decorating, re-decorating, baking, wrapping, and crafting done, so that I can enjoy this first Christmas Day with our Baby Reed! Can't wait to see him on Christmas Morning! 

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Comfort and Joy

Hello friends! Today I have a quick and easy card to share with you using the Cable Knit kit!

I loved the fun tags from Fancy Pants there were included in the kit, and thought they would make the perfect focal point for a card!

I added in a Prima wood disk from my stash, I love the dimension and texture that it gives this card! Some layering and fun bright colors, and this quick and easy card was put together in a mere 15 minutes!

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday!!

Packing up Christmas treats!

We're heading into the last days of school as I'm sure most of you with kids are. I've been working on getting some treats together to give to teachers, friends, neighbors, etc. 

One of my favorite treats to make is blizzard bites (recipe at bottom). It's easy to make and it is so yummy! There are so many ways you can package it up...little baggies, jars, gift boxes, etc. I love using mason jars because 1) I can a lot and always have jars on hand, and 2) it looks cute and protects the goodies inside.

What I love about Noel's kits is there's almost always a sheet of patterned paper that has those wonderful 3x4 tags on the back that can be used for a multitude of uses from accents on your layouts, to pocket scrapbooking, to cards & tags.

So I went ahead and cut all of mine out & used them for packaging up my holiday treats and used some ribbon & embellishments to decorate my jar.

I also used up a few for some quick and easy Christmas cards.

And finally, I just had to make some gift tags with that awesome stamp that came with the classic kit. Seriously guys, I am using that thing on everything. I just love it!

I simply cut the kraft cardstock from the kit into 3 1/2 x 4 1/2 pieces, snipped the edges to make it look more like a shipping tag, then stamped on them & added some patterned paper & washi at the bottom. Super easy & cute!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday week! I'll be back after Christmas with some new layouts to share!! 

And here's the recipe for those yummy blizzard bites (just right click to save & you can print out on 4x6 cardstock). And when I made my most recent batch I used 2 pkgs of vanilla almond bark & had a little leftover so I made some chocolate covered pretzels :)

 

Happy Holidays!

Reed's first Christmas is all I think about these days. Making new traditions, old ones gaining new meaning, and our usual Tuesday picture produced this little candid shot at the very end that I had to do something special with. It is so Reed. He is constantly sitting fiddling with toys, checking out the little feet under the stove, and the tiny wheel on the freezer drawer. You know, just doing his usual inspections...

The Daily Diary kit is great for more than just pocket style scrapbooking - I used several 3x4 cards on this layout to create the backing to anchor my photo, and the little wood stars? Oh yum.

That's all for me today. I hope you are all running around like crazy headless chickens, just like I am, getting ready for Christmas! Have a great rest of the week!