Christmas Treat Bags

Tomorrow is my daughter's Christmas party at school, so I thought it would be fun if I sent some treat bags for her classmates. I was in a hurry (because I'm a HUGE procrastinator, and waited until today to make them...lol!) so I didn't embellish them as much as I would have liked, but they still are cute!

This was a super easy project to make, which is good because I needed a lot of them! I started with some 4x6 treat bags that I picked up at Michael's and filled them with 5 Hershey Kisses and 2 mini candy canes (plenty of sugar for a 4 year old!). While I was filling the bags, I had my Cricut cutting the toppers and oval labels. Both cuts are from Art Philosophy. The topper is <Square4> cut at 4 inches. I love the paper I used...it is an 8.5x11" stack from Hobby Lobby called Christmas Basics - such pretty patterns! I could get 4 topper cuts on each sheet, so I used several designs from the stack. I scored each topper in the center to make them easier to fold over and get them straight. The ovals are <Oval1> cut at 1.5 inches. I stamped "Merry Christmas" with a Studio G stamp I found in the dollar bin at Wal-Mart. Then all that was left was the assembly. I folded the tops of the treat bags over (these were the twist tie kind, not the ziplocks) and then folded a topper over that and stapled it on. I used my atg to attach the ovals so it would cover up the staples. Easy peasy!

I hope you liked today's project! I'm linking this up on Exploring Cricut's "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" Challenge.

Happy Crafting!
~Melissa~

Baby, It's Cold Outside Card

Happy Friday! Today I have a super cute card using one of my favorite cartridges...Doodlecharms! Isn't the snowman adorable?!?!

I absolutely *love* how this card turned out! I decided to experiment with some non-traditional Christmas card colors because I bought a 6x6 stack of fun Christmas paper that had this sheet of brown with multi color snowflakes on it. I thought it was cute but I had no idea what I could use it for, so I challenged myself to use it on a card. I started with a blank brown card, then layered a ice blue cardstock and then the brown snowflake paper with a white ribbon wrapped around both layers. I cut the snowman and shadow from the Doodlecharms cartridge at 3.25" and assembled all the layers. I added some blue rhinestone bling for his buttons and put him on an action wobble. I hand cut the 'flag' piece and stamped 'baby it's cold outside' (from Pink by Design Christmas Wishes set) in chocolate brown ink. I also inked the edges then added some faux stitching with a white gel pen on the blue layer and on the flag. The flag piece is attached with pop dots to give some dimension.

I hope you like today's card! I'm linking this up on Exploring Cricut's Christmas Card Challenge. Have a good weekend everybody!
~Melissa~

JOY Christmas Cards

I had a dear friend ask me to make her some simple Christmas cards with snowflakes on them, so here's what I came up with:

These cards give the illusion of a lot of detail work with all those snowflakes in the background (so says my hubby), but they are very easy! I used blue cardstock with white core and embossed it with a snowflake folder in my Cuttlebug. I could have left it like it was, but I decided to raid my hubby's workshop to "borrow" one of his sanding blocks. I like the sanded look so much that he may not get his sanding block back now! Then I tied some pretty silver shimmery ribbon to the front and attached this to a plain white card base (from those jumbo packs at Hobby Lobby...buy them when they have The Paper Studio items half price, and stock up!!!). I cut the J and the Y from the Once Upon a Princess cartridge at 3.5" and the snowflake O is from Create a Critter 2 cut at 3.5". I glued all the letters on and placed a blue jewel in the center of the snowflake for a finishing touch. I stamped the inside with a Pink By Design stamp from the Christmas Wishes set that says, "Wishing you sparkle, Wishing you cheer, For a bright Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year".  My friend liked the sample, so I made her 24 more. :-)

I'm linking this project up on Hiding In My Craft Room's Blue Christmas Challenge and on Exploring Cricut's Christmas Card Challenge.

Another Christmas card project with be posted tomorrow, be sure to stop by and check it out!
~Melissa~

Family Layout

I made this 12x12 "Family" layout for a design contest in a facebook group I'm in. I didn't win the contest, but that's ok! I now have an awesome layout to place a couple of my favorite pics of my family on. My hubby is building me a shadow box for this, so I can add a few more keepsakes in addition to the picturess and hang it on the wall. Here's a photo of the layout:

I'm hoping this picture is clear...my memory card on my digital camera is full so I took this photo with my cell phone. I found some awesome Spare Parts flowers by The Paper Studio on clearance at Hobby Lobby and couldn't pass them up! I loved the color combination, so I looked for some paper to coordinate and found this patterened paper by MME that matched perfectly. I cuta little less than half of the pattern paper and attached it to a solid piece of teal cardstock.  I had a tan scrap of cardstock that I used a Martha Stewart scalloped punch to cut each side to make a border and glued to the cardstock. Then I cut a 3x3 and 4x6 photo mat to put our pics on and arranged the flowers around them. I added some champagne Recollections bling trim to the border piece for a finishing touch. I used the Lacy Labels Lite cartridge to cut the "family" sentiment and label piece. All coordinating layers were cut at 3.5".

I can't wait until my shadowbox is finished! His honey-do list is getting longer these days, but I'll post a photo of the completed box once he makes it. :-)

Fall Bulletin Board

I'm back! Wow it has been a long month or so! Sickness has went through my house, not once but twice! It seems that since my daughter has started school, she catches everything...and then brings it home to share with mommy and daddy! I have made a few projects since my last post so I will be uploading pics of those projects today and tomorrow. Here's a project I completed a while back and never got around to posting.

I get to decorate a bulletin board at my church for our children's ministry. I needed a fall theme, so I thought an owl perched in a tree would be a cute start. The owl/branch and the leaves were cut from one of my favorite carts - Create a Critter! The owl was cut at 4.25". I gave him googly eyes, which I love! He is so cute! The leaves were cut in various colors ranging in size from 2" up to 3" and arranged as though they are falling from the tree. The smaller tree in the background is from the Bloom Lite cart at 6.5". I cut the letters with the Birthday Bash cartridge at 3", and the Bible was made from the book cut on the My Community cartridge at 5.75". I handwrote the Bible verse on the book and glued a satin ribbon down the middle of the book to make it look more like a Bible. I handmade the clouds, because at the time I didn't have a cartridge that had a cloud cut on it. The sun is a little wooden pre-painted cut that I already had on hand.

Stay tuned for more projects!
~Melissa~