Christmas Crafting for Kids

Hi friends!  I hope that you are well!  We are doing ok.  We are getting into the Christmas spirit which is good.  I've been baking all week.  How about you?  What do you bake for the holidays?  I made molasses cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and I tried making saltine toffee but I overcooked it a bit so we are calling it "caramel brûlée bites" this year.  ;)

This last weekend, I had my cousin and some friends over for a Christmas crafting night for the kids. I poked around a bit on Pinterest and came up with a couple crafts that we tried out.  The first was a Christmas card made with washi tape.  I saw THIS PIN and decided to do it with washi tape instead so I didn't have to cut tons of strips of paper.  I pulled a bunch of red, green, and yellow washi and we used some brown washi for the tree trunk.  I used a Stampin' Up punch to punch the stars out of yellow sticker paper from DCWV.  That paper is AMAZING for working with kids!  You don't have to put out any messy glue!  It is textured card stock that's adhesive on the back and they just peel off the back like a sticker.

Next up, we did sugar cone Christmas trees.  In a stroke of genius, I gave each kid their own little cup of frosting and plastic butter knife.  Hooray for no mixing colors or sharing germs!  I also asked each kid what color frosting they wanted and added some food coloring if they wanted.  Avery ended up making a purple tree because she's currently obsessed with purple.  This photo is actually the tree that I made.  It looked like fun so I decided that I should make one too.  I'm quite pleased with it.

I think this craft night will become a tradition.  I asked each family that came to bring a craft and a finger food.  We also made beaded candy canes on pipe cleaners, pompom wreaths, and snowman soup.  It was a fun night!

Have a great day, friends!  

Christmas Cut Out Card

Hi friends!  I hope you are dong well.  We are ok.  I'm trying really hard to get into the Christmas spirit but it's not really working.  Hopefully soon since the clock is ticking!

Here's a card I made at my friend Rachel's crop this month.  She had the card base all cut out for us to embellish.  I added some stamping to the front and inside of mine but I forgot to take a picture of the inside.

I hope you're having a GREAT week!  

CTMH Christmas Cards

Hi friends!  I hope that you are doing well!  We are ok other than the little germs that are so persistent this time of year.  Hopefully, we will be germ free on Christmas.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!  Last year, Parker was sick on Christmas and we missed out on the big family celebration.  He can I stayed behind at home where he slept and threw up.  Here's to a better Christmas!  ;)

Speaking of Christmas, today I'm sharing a couple cards I made with my friend Rachel at her crop.  I actually made these cards in November but forgot to post them.  The first one is the one that Rachel designed as her make and take.  I put it together and colored it.  She has one each month featuring her Close to My Heart products.  The second card is my twist on her card which is what I usually do each month so I can blog it and feel like I'm sharing something original.

My card actually came about because Rachel accidentally cut the card base the wrong way so I figured I'd make a card that's horizontal.  I also wanted to use a different stamp to change it up.  Both cards are made with the CTMH Reindeer Bells stamp set, Red Glitter Paper, and White Pines paper.  I used some of Rachel's Touch Twin markers to color the images.  I'm a little rusty.

I hope you're having a great month!  I have a few more Christmas cards to share and some fun blog hops later on.  Also, I picked a winner for my Blogiversary giveaway and it is posted in the giveaway widget.  

Merry Merry and More Winners

Hi friends!  I hope you are doing well!  We are having a rough time right now.  I'm sure at one point it will get better but it's a little overwhelming.  Sorry if I'm slow responding to emails or comments and posting new blog posts.  

Today, I'm sharing a card I made at my friend Rachel's crop last month.  She gave us all the pieces to make this super sweet mini card and she made us a sample.  I decided to change it up a little bit and put my own spin on it.  All the products are from Close to My Heart.  I think it turned out really cute and I like that I used pieces I never would have put together since she had all the layers picked out in advance.  

Ok, more winners:
SRM- Giorgia
Bossy Joscie- Marie
My Little Clothesline - Miriam
Whisker Graphics - Christine
Paper Smooches - Tessa
Craft Fail - Tessa
Close to My Heart - Andrea

Have a great day, everyone!

Happiest of Holidays and Winners

Hi friends!  I hope that you are doing well!  We are ok.  It's just very busy this time of year and we are working out some things at school for my son.  Hopefully, we will resolve everything soon and we can relax for Christmas.

I've been holding onto this card for a long time, waiting to blog it.  It was one of the last cards that I made to submit to Paper Crafts.  This was a LONG time ago but I didn't want to blog it until Christmas since it's awkward to post Christmas cards in the spring.  Maybe?  I don't know.  Either way, I waited.  This card was made with American Crafts papers and some Metallic Silver Divine Twine.  I really like the movement on this card.

I also wanted to announce the winner of two giveaways:
Jamberry - Kim Howard
Unravel - Elly H

Congrats!  Email me via the sidebar for your prize!  Have a great day, friends!

7 for 7: SRM Stickers

Hi friends!  I hope you enjoyed the last week of giveaways!  This is the last one!  Well, for this series, I have a few other giveaways planned for this upcoming month so keep checking back.

Giveaway Rules: Join me each day this week for a TWO new giveaways.  (There *might* be some bonus giveaways too.)  To enter the giveaways, you'll need to use the Rafflecopter that I post at the bottom of each blog post.  Each giveaway will be open for 14 days from the day it starts since it's a holiday week and I want to give people a chance to enter.  All readers are welcome, US or international, unless a giveaway specifies.  Winners will be announced on my blog and my Heart Hugs Designs Facebook Page.  Winners will have 72 hours to contact me or a new winner will be drawn.  Good luck to everyone!

My last giveaway for my 7th anniversary celebration is from SRM Stickers.  They carry a bunch of other products other than their fabulous stickers.  They keep expanding their product line.  They have containers for party favors, all sorts of bags, vinyl, twine, DIY kits, etc...  I absolutely adore all the products I've ever gotten from SRM and I look forward to buying many more in the future.  Of course, as with every single person I work with, Susan and her husband are some of the nicest people you'll meet in the craft industry!  Susan has offered up this super generous Christmas sticker package as a giveaway to kick off the holiday season!

I actually had some of these fabulous SRM Stickers so I made a sample to show you what you could make with these fabulous stickers!  I used some paper and die cuts from Pebbles Home for Christmas.  I also added some sequins.

Enter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Merry Christmas 2012

Hi friends!  I haven't sent out Christmas cards yet.  I'm just not feeling it this year.  Maybe I can get around to it very soon being that Christmas is coming really soon.  Like the day after tomorrow...

Here are the photo cards Dustin designed for us to send out.  I just picked out the pictures, he did the rest.  Hopefully, we get them sent soon.

Merry Christmas, friends!  

Brady's Teacher Christmas Cards

Hi friends!  I hope you are doing well.  Alas, I'm still here and very pregnant.  Please keep your fingers crossed that I don't have this baby on Christmas or Christmas Eve.  I don't want to be in the hospital.  I'd like to be with my boys that day.  ;)

Speaking of Christmas, this year Brady decided to make his own Christmas cards for his teachers.  That boy is SO sweet!  He told me he wanted a Christmas tree on the card so Dustin and I drew some triangles for him to cut out himself.  I trimmed the tree trunks and punched the stars our for him but he picked the colors.  He added the rhinestones and Stickles himself.  He wrote From Brady on the front of both as well.  Then he wrote a special message inside for his teachers.  He really is a sweet little doll.  I didn't do anything crafty for their presents this year.  They will get these cards with some gifts basket things from Starbucks.

Have a great day, friends!  

May Arts Ribbonistas Blog Hop (Giveaway)

Hi friends!  I hope you're doing well!  Today, I have a super fun post!  This week, all the May Arts Ribbonistas are getting together for a Christmas blog hop!  There's only 5 designers on the hop each day so it's super easy.  Don't forget to LEAVE COMMENTS to be entered into the GIVEAWAY!  Today is my turn to be on the hop and I'm so excited to show you what I created!  You can start the blog hop at the May Arts Blog.


For my Christmas project, I put together a wreath.  I quite frankly I don't think you can have enough wreaths.  Well, unless you run out of doors and cupboards.  ;)  I covered a wreath form with 2 inch solid crushed wired ribbon.  Then I added a Prima flower and finished with some pearl center lace.  I love the clean but still very elegant look of this.

Here's a detail shot:

Here is the blog list for today:
Jingle
Karen
Kendra
Vera
Ashley (you are here)

Don't forget to leave comments at all the blogs to win!  Have a great day, friends!!

Create: Christmas Cards Publication

Hi friends!  I hope you're having a great day!  I'm getting really uncomfortable over here.  Just the normal stuff.  We are getting ready for the baby (almost done) and for Christmas.  The kids are super excited for both.

Today, I'm sharing a card I made that was published in Create: Christmas Cards which came out in November.  For directions and supplies, please check out the issue.  It's a one layer card, can you believe it?  ;)  

Hope you have a wonderful day, friends!

Christmas Subway Art Card

Hi friends!  I hope you're having a great day!  I'm in a horrendous mood today.  I watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last night and there were really graphic scenes that bothered me a lot.  I'm really glad I never read the book.  But now I can't kick that haunted feeling.  :(  Pregnancy can be hard in this aspect.

Today, I'm blogging another Christmas card I made.  This one is perfect for mailing because it's relatively flat and very light.  This is important since I need to MAIL my Christmas cards instead of hoarding them.  You know, like the other hundreds of cards I have laying around.  I'm entering this in the Cute Card Thursday Christmas in Sept challenge too.  The paper and sticker are Echo Park.

Have a great day, friends!

Growing in Unity Day 3 (Giveaways!)

Hi friends! Thanks for joining me in another day of Growing in Unity! Today, we are heading home from our mini getaway and let me tell you, 2 nights is just not enough! :) But I'm lucky that we got to go on this trip at all and it was a VERY nice time!

Ok, don't forget to leave comments on every single day of my Growing in Unity (you can go back and leave comments on previous days.) There will be THREE blog candies that I will announce once my week is over! Every comment will be entered to win in the random drawings! :)

Are you all ready for another installment of one stamp two ways? I have to say, I'm having a BLAST! And now, a little confession. I made the bottom card for a call and it was rejected. I was scrambling to get everything done before I left on my trip and just couldn't do TWO more cards so I only made this top one to go with the bottom one.

I'm not really sure what I call this top card. I feel like it's very cozy and traditionally Christmas-like. I guess I call this a "classic" Christmas card. The set I used is Joy and Wonder. This first card uses Echo Park's Merry Christmas. Everything comes from this line! I just added the sentiment, string and punched the one edge.

Now for my more modern, clean and simple card. I wanted a card with a lot of white space. I used Echo Park's Everybody Loves Christmas for this card. It's a bit more funky because it has some pink. The snowflakes were made with Spellbinders dies and little gems.

Hope you are all having a great week! Come back tomorrow for another day of Unity!

Snowman Happy Holidays

Hi friends! Happy Thursday! Today is the day we bake and decorate cookies for Santa each year! :) Dec 23. So, that's what we'll be doing tonight. The kids seem much better today.

I don't know why I'm still making Christmas cards but I'm just in that Christmas spirit, I guess. I still haven't mailed out all my cards yet so some of these might just go out to some friends. :)

I made this card using one of the Day 12 sketches from the LOVELY Amy Heller. I put this together very quickly using some Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather and some baker's twine. I did leave off a layer on this, I just couldn't make it work. I hope that doesn't disqualified! ;)

Have a WONDERFUL week everyone! I might not see you again before the New Year.

Card Details:

Card Stock: cream

Patterned Paper, Sticker, Chipboard: Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather

Misc: baker's twine

Vintage Santa

Hello again, friends! It's a rather sloooow day here so I'm blogging again. The kids are sick but in pretty good spirits. I've kept them inside today so that they can rest and get better by Christmas, hopefully!

During nap time today, I was able to make a couple cards. I haven't crafted in a while, it felt nice! This card is made for Laurel's blog candy challenge. She gave us this Santa image to work with. I love it! Its so vintage and fabulous! I also used one of Amy Heller's sketches from Day 12 for this card.

I love vintage for Christmas! I inked the edges of the paper with white ink, not sure if you can see it. I tried to use some of the vintage buttons I got at that vintage event I went to a while ago but I couldn't find two that matched so I went with some Denami buttons.

Card Details:

Card Stock: cream

Patterned Paper: Webster's Pages

Image: Digital from Laurel Seabrook

Buttons: Denami Designs

Fibers: May Arts string

Doily Tree

Hi friends! I'm blogging this project here and on the Paper Maniac blog today. :)

I have a Christmas project I made to share with you all. The base of this is a styrofoam cone I got at a local craft store. You can find a tutorial for this doily tree HERE. It's a pretty fast craft and would make a lovely hostess gift for anyone you might be visiting this holiday season.

Project Details:

Styrofoam Cone

Doilies

Stick Pins

Webster's Pages trim

Tree topper

I'm linking this to:

Crafting with Kids

Hi everyone! Hope you are having a good week.

Here's a craft I did last Friday with Brady and his little friend Sophia who we were watching. I cut out all the trees by hand, there are 12 of them. Brady requested that we have ORANGE in our banner so I went with it. I found some old SU winter paper with orange in it.

I punched out brown squares for the tree trunks. Then I punched a bunch of different shapes for "ornaments." The kids glued on the ornaments, added some rhinestones, and I added some Stickles. Then I punched holes in each side of the top of the Christmas trees and threaded them on this ribbon. Then I tied on tons of little ribbons to keep the trees in place. Overall, the kids spent like 20 mins on it and I spent like 2 hours. What can do you?

Sorry for the bad pictures. It's really hard to take pictures of something so big and there's a chandelier in the middle of this room.

Hope you have a great day!

Ippity Hop: Christmas in the Spring

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend. We had a great time even though Brady ended up with the sniffles. But he's in good spirits.

I've decided to skip forward a few seasons and make a Christmas card. ;) Teehee, I get whimsical sometimes. I made this for the Moxie Fab World challenge, paper piecing. I used Ippity's Kissmas and Mistletoe set. I love this tree! It's my fave Christmas tree ever! The paper and sticker sentiment are Close to My Heart from the Jingle collection. The ribbon is from Joann Fabrics. And the button is PTI.

Have a great Monday everyone and don't forget to check out the Ippity blog for all the people that are participating in the hop today!

My First H{Ippity} Hop

This is my first ever Ippity hop! YAY! I'm excited to show you my project even thought it's a bit late in the month for it. I just got my Ippity stamps not too long ago and I am in love with them!

I made this project for the Ippity DT call which I (sadly) didn't make. It's an advent calendar using a mini muffin pan. Isn't that a fun idea? I found it online when looking up DIY advent calendars. You can put a little piece of candy or some fun little party favor type toy in each cup for your kids to find. I used my Marvy punches for this project and all the DP is from the DCWV Christmas stack from last year. And the stamps are from Kissmas and Mistletoe. (You can buy them from me in my sidebar to the right.)

Thanks for stopping by and if you just stumbled in, go back to the Ippity blog to check out all the blogs on today's hop! Happy Christmas week everyone! Woohoo!

Softpencil Thursday: A Christmas Ornament

I am SO sorry I am late with today's post. Softpencil Thursdays are really one of my FAVORITE posts to do. My kids are STILL sick and my poor DH is sick. And I'm up to my eyeballs in stuff to do. Sigh... Please forgive me.

This week, we were to make Anything But a Card (ABC.) I got to use the wonderful Gorgeous Life digi stamp. Seriously, this stamp is so fun and versatile! I decided to make an ornament for my Christmas tree. As you can tell, these Mandalas lend themselves beautifully to the scalloped circle Nesties. :)

Please check out the design team, they are in my side bar. Also, to play along with the challenges and win, check out the Softpencil PCP group!

Softpencil Thursday: Favorite Christmas Colors

Oh Softpencil Thursday, how I've MISSED you! All sorts of stuff has been going on at Softpencil while I was MIA. I am so sorry I haven't been posting, I've been so drained with the family issues then the shingles. I was mostly just posting things I'd already made. But I'm back! :)

So, this week we were given We Wish You a Merry Christmas to work with. Isn't it cute? It reminds me of a Christmas photo card with the whole family standing out front. I love it! The challenge was to use your favorite Christmas color combo to make a card. I used traditional green and red.

Don't forget to check out the DT, they are in my sidebar to the left! There's so new people too! :D And to play along with our challenge, check out the Softpencil PCP group!