Merry & Bright

I don't know about you, but I'm already a little nostalgic for Christmas. I've spent the last couple of days taking down all of the Christmas decorations and now my house just looks soooo boring! It makes me just NEED to go shopping...

In honor of this need for more jingling bells, I decided to mix the new Hey Girl kit with December's Cable Knit kit to create this page of Reed seeing the tree for the first time.

I have never been a real traditional Christmas themed kind of girl, so mixing in the blues and golds was a great combo for me.

I knew I'd find the perfect thing to use that red tinsel twine on from the Cable Knit kit, and those rubons and the Navy Color Shine spray from the Hey Girl kit are to die for!

Can we just talk a minute about the stamps in this kit? I mean, that's a full pack of Heidi Swapp's little sweeties and the "let your light shine" one was an obvious choice for this layout.

I tucked a few of the little bits of paper tags and ephemera into the layers on the right side of the page, and tied on the tags for a little depth. To finish it off, I just jotted down a little bit of my own journaling and voy-yo-lay!

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! 

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!

Christmas Cheer

Can you believe that Christmas is not even two weeks away?

Are you ready?

This year I can safely say that I am...not.

Presents have been bought and are hiding in my closet but most of the decorations are still not out and may not make it this year.

It has been a crazy-busy time with other activities going on, kids and me being sick and trying to keep up with piles of laundry both dirty and clean and the Christmas decorating has fallen by the wayside.

We have yet to have our annual gingerbread decorating and the nativity scenes are still in their boxes.

Even without all of the decorations out we have lots of Christmas cheer!

Today I am sharing a layout with you that shows just that:

 

To start off my page I layered two sheets of patterned paper from the Cable Knit kit cutting just 1/4" from each side of the text/poinsettia paper. I trimmed the trees in the background from another piece of patterned paper using scissors and a craft knife and adhered that piece to my page next.

I am not a stamper by any means but I loved the stamp set in this month's kit and decided to use it (and some mustard ink) on my background. I also added some ink splatters to bring in more of the blue color. 

One of my favorite things about Noel's kits is the mix of alpha possibilities. This month we got the Christmas words along with this large green sticker from Fancy Pants. I used the white gel pen from the kit to add faux stitching and help the green alpha stand out more. 

I adhered my photo to a piece of patterned paper and then added some of the gorgeous self-adhesive red lace trim to the bottom of the picture. I tucked a snowflake under the edge of the photo and added a piece of gold trim to the Fancy Pants envelope and adhered that to my page. I used some Pebbles cardstock accents along with that cute little green deer (♥) and used some of the buttons and a wood veneer snowflake as well. I finished off the page with stars from the word sticker sheet and from the enamel My Mind's Eye stickers. 

We hope that you are enjoying the holiday season so far! 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Make sure and check out all of the great new products in the Noel Mignon store. 

Come back and see us again soon!

Passing the love along

Hi friends! I'm going to be really quick today because today is a fun day for me and my biggest girl. She and I will be participating in a day long craft day that is organized by our church. The organization behind it is called Created for a Purpose, and today is the Christmas version of their summer crafting camp.

Since I'm the adult in charge of her group, I got the awesome opportunity to do my crafts last night. And guess what? I brought along my Noel Mignon Cable Knit kit and whipped it out when the director said that we'd be making canvases with scrapbook paper. Perfect timing!

SOOO, here's what I'll be making today with a group of 3rd graders. You've probably seen versions of it on Pinterest.

We chose to keep the background simple--just a single layer of acrylic paint--so that we wouldn't be waiting forever for gesso, paint, etc. to dry.  Then we stacked 1" strips of patterned paper in the shape of a Christmas tree, and added other shapes as presents to the bottom. Last up, we embellished the tree and gifts. Pretty simple, a lot of fun. And best of all I get to help pass along the love of crafting to a group of young girls. It's fantastic! And for the record, they'll also be making burlap Christmas ornaments, and white chocolate peppermint bark. So much fun!

Hope your day is as fun as mine is going to be!!

handmade gift bags

Hello again!

We've switched some things around this week and I am here today to share a few little things with you that I made using the gorgeous December kit, Cable Knit.

We hope you are enjoying the variety of projects we've shared with you using this kit so far this month.

Today I have some quick and easy handmade bags to share with you to help make your holiday packaging needs come together a little more quickly.

I used a basic kraft bag for the base and added papers and embellishments from the Cable Knit kit as well as the American Crafts Zazz gold glitter glue we got in the kit a couple of months ago. I think I might soon need to buy another bottle!

I cut a strip of Fancy Pants patterned paper and then cut around the scallop shape to add to the card above.

For this bag I cut the poinsettia from a Jillibean Soup card and added some glitter glue and some of the beautiful gold trim from the kit. 

One of my favorite parts of the kit this month is the beautiful adhesive lace trim from Maya Road. It is a festive red, perfect for holiday projects. I used lots of on this bag and the others.

For this last bag I used some paper from Fancy Pants, more red lace trim and a flower. I actually cut the flower from the layered poinsettia and then used a glue gun to add that and the enamel My Mind's Eye dot center to the card. The sentiment is one from Elle's Studio. I added gold glitter glue to the edge of the knit printed paper and added a piece of gold trim to the bottom edge of the bag. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

My Simplified December Memories Album

Every year, I attempt to make a December Daily album. Some years I succeed, and some years I do not. I've discovered that trying to document every day is not something I'm very good at and I end up grouchy and irritable and overwhelmed... not feelings I want to add into my favorite season! 

My perspective that has helped is to make an album of 25 favorite moments or memories I want to document, and to NOT do them in chronological order (necessarily!). Y'all, this relieves so much pressure for me! 

Here's the opening page of my album. I used a Simple Stories album and the Cable Knit kit. 

I also used some Silhouette files and printables from Wilna Furstenburg.

To add to the cohesion of the album, I used these free number printables. 

You can see that I didn't add many specific words because I will fit in what I want into each section and numbered memory as I print the photos.

I used a mixture of pocket sizes and am trying to take pictures in different orientations and sizes so when I print, they will all fit in somewhere! I will go in and edit my photos at the end to just make sure.

I love love love to make transparencies a page of their own. I added this one in and I'll either adhere journaling or a photo or both on the back to have it peek through.

I'll share more of my album soon, but I wanted to encourage you with this technique, it's not too late to make your own album for this Christmas! 

One final tip: I made a list of 25 memories I wanted to document this month. I probably won't put them in my album in this exact order. Here's my list in case it helps you! 

1. Decorations

2. Putting the star on the tree

3. Visiting Santa

4. Baking

5. Ballet Recital

6. Xmas Parade

7. Visiting with special friends

8. Caroling

9. MDO Christmas party

10. School class parties

11. Christmas Program at MDO

12. CPC Ladies' Party

13. Sabby's birthday party

14. Home Alone @ the Alabama Theater

15. Fave Christmas STories & MOvies

16. Stockings

17. Wrapping Gifts

18, Kids' Wishlists

19. Advent Art Journal

20. Christmas Party at Grams'

21. Candlelight Service

22. Christmas Eve Excitement

23. Christmas Morning

24. Family Pic

25. Christmas Hymns