The Eve of Christmas Eve

I hope that all of your holiday preparations are coming together nicely.  I still feel like I am playing catch-up after our trip last month but I will get it all done! 

Sales, Sales, Sales...

Just when we have so many extra things to do it seems that all of the stores are having pre-Christmas sales.  I used to enjoy shopping after Christmas for bargains on holiday items but I think there probably won't be any left - many places have already marked them down 50, 60 and even 70%.

Even if you don't have time to get out to the stores you can do some shopping online - so here is a bit of enabling...

Blitsy offers new items for sale three times a week.  So far they have had a great assortment of quality craft items at good prices.  (Tim Holtz, Spellbinders, LaBlanche stamps, 7 Gypsies, Tattered Angels, Xyron, 3M adhesive tape and pink tape gun, Zutter (Bind-it-All, DreamKutz), Sizzix dies, Smooch, Ranger Ink products (including Stickles and Liquid Pearls), Little Yellow Bicycle kits - you just never know what you will find).   Each sale lasts for one week and new items are posted around 10 a.m. Central Time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

Here is my referral link that you can use to join the site.  http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/

The site is a private membership site and membership is free.  Once you are a member, you can get your own special code to refer your friends and family.  When they make their first order, you will get a $10 credit to spend on one of your orders.  If you are on Facebook, you can also become a "fan" of the Blitsy page and you will get a code for 10% off your first order.

Thanks for using my LINK to join.  I think you will like the items they offer.  I have ordered several times and the orders all arrived quickly and were packed well.  

Lettering Delights  just announced a dollar days sale.  Most items are just $1 (Graphic sets, fonts, alphabets, clip art, paper packs, doodlebats, candy wraps, etc.) and the Cut-its and SVGs are 50% off (these can be used with many die cutting machines but not the Cricut unless you have third party software purchased before the lawsuit settlements).

If you are a fan of the Create A Critter cartridge, you will love these cute holiday versions of some of the animals by the same designer, Nancy Kubo.  There are lots of new items and some that are particularly nice for the holidays.  There are also a lot of sets by Sheri Berry Designs that are similar to the Snow Angel Imagine cartridge that she designed.  These were offered in a bundle but with the sale they are less expensive to buy individually.

I use a lot of the Lettering Delights graphics with my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator software.  I can also cut the cuttable files with my Silhouette machine.  I didn't see an end date for the sale listed but the email did say that they won't be having dollar days in 2012 so this might be a good time to pick up the sets that you want.  To get an additional discount, you can "buy" the monthly freebie and when your confirmation email arrives there will be a code for 25% off your next order.

Finally, I want to let you know that Creative Memories will have be having a year end sale on December 28 and 29th.  There will also be an album sale in January.  I'll update with the details after Christmas.

The design at the top of this post is a screen shot of a file I created with the Silhouette software.  I haven't had a chance to try cutting it yet.  I am wondering how many of you have a Silhouette or the new Cameo machine and would be interested in the files I have been designing...

It's raining here but still no sign of snow...it will be funny if we have a year with a White Halloween and a Green Christmas!


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First Day of Winter

Happy First Day of Winter!  Our temperature today is predicted to be around 52 degrees - not your typical Boston-in-December by far!  In honor of the season, I thought I'd post some links to snowflake projects today.  If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I love snowflakes and often use them for projects.  I tend to favor cartridges that have snowflakes and also have designed lots of snowflakes from Cricut shapes.  More recently, I have been drawing my own snowflakes using the Silhouette Studio software.  Here are a few images of past projects - you should be able to click the photos and go directly to the original posts.

These projects were all made with the images on a single key on the "A Child's Year" cartridge (except for the sentiment which is from another key).  This cartridge is still a favorite of mine - it is so full of great images and was very well planned to make good use of the available space on a cartridge.

This snowflake card is another favorite.  If you click this image, you should be taken to the post with some tips on designing snowflakes.  This one is made from a fleur-de-lis element from the Cupcake Wrappers cartridge.

This is a snowflake (more like a snowball!) that I designed in the Silhouette Studio software and cut with my Silhouette SD.  Designs like this are easy to make with some of the extra tools that are available in this software.

This is another, simpler, Silhouette Studio design.  The paper on the card front was printed with the Imagine and is from the Heirloom cartridge.

This amazing snowflake is from the Cheerful Seasons cartridge.  If you click the image to see more about the cut you will need to scroll down to the second half of the post.

Here is a full page size snowflake made up from some frames and other elements from Reminisce Accents.  There is an explanation of how I made it at THIS POST.

Elaborate lace shapes are great for making lace snowflakes - this one uses more Reminisce Accents shapes.  Working with shapes on a cartridge can save you time in creating but it is also fun to draw your own images using other software.

These are some of the first snowflakes I ever created in Design Studio - back in 2008 using the Fabulous Finds cartridge.  Technically, they aren't snowflakes since they have eight points - but they looked better with eight pieces when I put them together.

If you are one of the people who has everything done ahead of time - good for you!  Maybe you can  take the time to try some of these snowflake ideas.  There are more - just search for "snowflakes" with the search box at the top left of the page.  (There may be a few links for files that are old and broken - please let me know if you find one that doesn't work...)


I have a large collection of new files that I have designed that need to be test cut - maybe in January I'll get a chance to do that!  

We made more progress in decorating and wrapping yesterday - today I want to do some cooking to get some dishes ready ahead of time for our family get together on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas).  The freezer is a big help when you are getting ready for a crowd!

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Ten Tiny Tags

On Monday I had a nice surprise.  Linda, from Ink About It , called to tell me that I was one of the winners of a gift certificate to the store.  This is the local store that hosted the chipboard holiday house challenge (click HERE to go to the post where I showed some of the houses).  Three winners were chosen by a random draw from all of the people who brought in a house.

I like to try to visit the store on Tuesdays when they have something set up on the "art bar" so I made a trip up to the store yesterday.  I did some shopping (more about that later...) and made some tags at the art bar.  They had some white tags (the sort that you can find at the office supply store) and stamps, markers and ribbons set out.  If you are in a last minute rush - cute little tags like this don't take very long to make.  You can easily cut some tags from white cardstock so you don't even need to make a trip to buy tags.

I did four mitten tags with some pen stitching around the edges...

...four polar bear tags, and two wreath tags.

I decided to make the cuffs and the mittens different colors. 

I tried a couple of different shades of green on the wreaths.  After I got home, I realized that the stamp was a little low and the name for the "from" would probably have to go up the side of the tag - oops!

The images were all colored with Copic Spica Glitter pens.  Using sparkly pens or shiny papers is an easy way to make something look festive and special.

For accents, I used these pens.  I think I have some around the house already but I bought another set to be sure I could use them right away.  (Do you ever buy extras of something that you know you probably have tucked away somewhere?...it's a good thing that they are an inexpensive treat!).

I dotted the spots on the mittens and, if you look carefully at the wreath (you may have to click to enlarge the photo) you can see the added sparkle from the stardust pen.

A short piece of ribbon, folded in half and stapled to the top, finishes the tag off nicely.

 I used the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to add the ribbon.  This is a hand held stapler that uses extra small staples - about 1/4 inch.

For a few of the tags, I used some nontraditional blue and green ribbon.

For the rest I chose the standard red and white.  If you look below each polar bear, you can see the tiny bit of sparkly snow I added with the stardust pen.  I also drew some stars in the sky for each polar bear to look at!

The names will go on the back of these tags.   I'll probably use these three for the triplets.

These were quick, simple and fun to make and a great little break in a hectic week.  I really enjoy knowing that there is a shop not too far away that I can visit to see lots of new products in person.  It's also fun to do a quick and simple project that someone else has set up for you.

Of course, I spent the gift certificate and more and I got some very nice treats - here is a little sneak peek that shows a few of the things I bought in use on another project.

My camera is "sort of" working.  I have to hold it in just the right way to keep the lens connected properly.  I think I need to pull out the manual and see if there is a piece missing from the fall.  This is the first time I can ever remember dropping a camera - very bad timing but I do have my "purse camera" to fall back on.

I hope that you are nearly finished with your to do lists - mine are slowly but surely getting shorter.  Have a great day!


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Pillow Boxes for Gift Cards and Cash

There are just a few more days until Christmas and Hanukkah begins tonight.  Everyone is trying to finish their list of things that must be done before the holiday.  I did a lot of wrapping yesterday and now I am just waiting for a few more packages to arrive.  This year most of our gifts are things that come in boxes but there are a few gifts cards too.  These usually come with some sort of folder but I think they deserve to be wrapped in style. 

A couple of years ago, I showed these little boxes that I made to hold some gift cards and cash.  There are pillow boxes on several cartridges - these happen to be from the Wedding cartridge.  You can see more details about them at THIS POST (there is also a yummy recipe for roasted vegetables in that post!)

I cut the same pillow box shape that I used for the blue boxes, however, I hid all of the lines except the curved lines at the ends that help to form the pillow box shape.  I don't like the cuts, but it is tricky to score smooth curves for folding, especially with this heavy glittered cardstock. 

I assembled the box with 1/4 inch  Scor-Tape.  This is a very aggressive adhesive and it works well even with the glittered cardstock.  When you fold in the ends of a pillow box, be sure to fold down the ends with the thumbnail cut first.  This makes it easier to open the second flap and also allows the solid flap to show when the box is closed.  You can see the white edges that are exposed by the curved cuts - you could ink these if they are too distracting.

I put together a few poinsettias from Prima and added a pearl brad from Creative Charms.  I colored the brad and pearl red with a ProMarker.  These pearl brads come in the Vintage Velvet Poppies and I often change them and add a different center brad so I have lots of extras sitting around.
 

The flowers have slits cut to insert the brad but I had to add my own slits to the leaves.

There were also some little embossed ornaments in the Prima tin so I added one of them to the flower cluster.  I tied a gold ribbon around the entire box and attached the flowers with a large glue dot.

I thought I'd like the ends of the ribbon to stay loose, however, in the end I decided to tuck them under for a rounder shape.

If you have a lot of "small, flat and folding" (as in cash) gifts to share, you could put all of the boxes on a tree and let the recipients search for the box that was personalized for them.  I put this one on the front hall Santa tree to take photos.

The traditional colors blend in nicely with the tree.  If you like the way the boxes look on a tree, you could even create a group of them to use as ornaments each year.

I had another gift box to share with you but, unfortunately, I dropped my camera while I was taking these photos and I am having trouble getting it to work properly.  The lens came off when the camera fell and now it is not consistently recognizing that the lens is on the camera.  This camera has been my constant companion for over four years and I hope I can get it sorted out to work as it normally does.

Hanukkah begins at sunset today so I want to say Happy Hanukkah to all of you who will be celebrating for the next eight days.

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Christmas Lights in Madrid

When we went to visit our son and daughter-in-law after Thanksgiving, we spent the first couple of days in Madrid.  They live in a smaller city south of Madrid and came up on the train to meet us.  The holiday lights were up and there were some displays that were different than the lights I have typically seen here in the US.  I thought I'd share some of my photos so you could get a look at the unusual displays.

Each of the streets leading up to the main plaza had a different style of lighted decorations.  These colorful balls of light were interesting.  I wondered why the third  one was half red and half green instead of solid green...

The scale of the decorations was very large.  In the day time you could see how they were constructed.

 

At night the structures disappear and all you see is an amazing light show.  The streets were very crowded at about ten o'clock at night - it was dinner time!

The snowflakes on the large department store building moved in interesting patterns.

When we walked to the plaza in the daytime, this tree looked rather odd.  It was extremely tall and had a path below that you could walk through.

At night, the plaza was full of people and the lighted tree was a big attraction, with long lines of people waiting to go through the tree.

Along the main street near our hotel there were cityscapes repeated every half block or so.  They continued down the street as far as we could see.

This starry blue sky was very twinkly.  It was in an area a little bit away from the main lights - I think it was on some sort of government building like a library.

The most unusual display was the "ceiling" of lights over another plaza where there was a Christmas market going on.  In this daytime shot you can see the wires and cables that suspend the lights.  They are round discs in different colors and patterns and they are hovering over the plaza like flying saucers!

It's hard to describe the feeling that we had walking under this ceiling of light.  The effect was magical and a bit surreal.  In the photo directly above you can get a feel of the size of the plaza.  (just click on any photo to see it larger)  There were so many of the lighted discs.  It must have been quite an engineering puzzle to get them suspended so they could float above the crowds.

This was yet another type of light along one of the streets that led to the plaza.  I thought it was interesting that they had so many different designs.  I wonder if there was a competition or challenge given to some designers to come up with unique patterns for each street.

The tall Christmas tree was an interesting combination of green circles in various sizes and red stars and hearts.

When we came back through the plaza after our dinner the crowds were mostly gone and we were able to walk right in to the tree.  I tried to get a shot straight up the center of the tree.  The effect was very interesting as you could see all of the segments tapering to the tip of the tree.

This was my favorite photo of the evening - the newlyweds with one of the hearts behind them!

I hope you enjoyed the lights.  It is interesting to see how different cities and countries decorate for the holidays.  I liked the bold graphic designs which were very different than the typical New England window candles and white twinkly lights.  The designs are also great inspiration for some card or page layouts - I hope to be able to create a few items inspired by the lights.

We're in the final countdown now - I am determined to have everything wrapped before Christmas Eve!  I did see the questions about the dimensions of the lollipop tree and I will try to empty it to take a photo and also take the measurements and post them tomorrow.  Thanks for the suggestions on where to get the tootsie pops.  I could always change to a different type of lollipop.  I have seen bags of the tootsie pops but I was hoping to find the huge boxes I used to get at Costco.


Have a great day and don't forget to check to see what new crafty items are added to Blitsy later this morning.

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