7 for 7: Whisker Graphics

Hi friends!  I hope you had an excellent Saturday!  We are just hanging out today with no real plans.  I hope you are enjoying all the giveaways!  Please look through the first few posts on my blog for 10 more giveaways!  That's a lot of chance to win free stuff!

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!

Tonight's giveaway is brought to us by my friends at Whisker Graphics!  They are offering up a fabulous Holiday Kit and Kaboodle for you to make your own awesome crafts!  Whisker Graphics makes Divine Twine, Bitty Bags, Petite Stickys, and much more.  You can get the items to do your holiday wrapping and some crafts!  I worked for Whisker Graphics for a very long time and I promise you they have amazing quality items.  They are also some of the nicest people in the craft industry.

I made a sample of what you could do if you won a Kit and Kaboodle.  I did add two kinds of extra Divine Twine but other than that, everything else comes with the kit.  I braided Cherry, Green Apple, and Holiday Divine Twine into handles for my bag.  I punched holes in the bag that I reinforced with Petite Stickys.  I added a Little Bitty Bag and a Colored Tag so you could write the person's name on the tag and include a small card and greeting inside the Little Bitty Bag.  This is a cute and extra special way to present a gift.  

Enter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Halloween!

Hi friends!  Happy Halloween!  I hope you guys all have an amazing day!  We are headed to a Trunk or Treat later tonight since our neighborhood isn't the most fun on Halloween and by that I mean almost NO ONE gives out candy here.  It's sad.  I remember when I was a kid almost every house gave out candy and there was a rare house with all the lights out.  Now, it's the opposite.

On a fun note, here are the treats I made for the boys to give to their teachers.  These were super simple to make and I think they look really cute.  I think a little cute gift wrapping really makes a gift sing.  I took Polka Dot Middy Bitty Bags and trimmed some height off.  Then I punched the edge.  I put the candy bars in and folded the bags over so the width fit then secured with a little washi tape on the back.  Then I decorated with some Halloween Divine Twine and some Doodlebug Designs paper and journalling spots.

And it's Avery's first Halloween so I'll share a pic from earlier today.  

Happy Halloween, friends!  Have a wonderful and safe day!!!

Whisker Graphics Challenge #2: Anything Goes

Hi friends!  I hope you're having a great day!  We are doing good over here.  Summer is in full swing and we are taking it easy.  Eventually, we will go out and do things but right now we are kind of just hanging out at home.

I'm a little late post my project for the Whisker Graphics Challenge #2: Anything Goes.  All you have to do is use some Whisker Graphics product on your project and link it up to the post by July 31 to be entered.  If you don't have Whisker Graphics products, you can use a FREE printable found HERE.  For my project, I just gift wrapped some picture frames for a couple friends.  I used the Diagonal Stripe Bigger Bitty Bag and I sealed it with a Scrolly Square Label.  I wrote their names and added a gemstone heart to each label.  Super fast, super easy!  Anything goes, right?  

Have a great weekend, friends!  

Quick Gift Idea

Hi friends!  I hope you're having a great day!  I'm still here.  Hoping to have this baby before Christmas.  It's looking bleak though.  :/  That's ok.  It will happen when it happens.

Today, I'm sharing a present I made for a friend with you.  I started with some inexpensive Glade candles.  I like these kinds of candle.  I can't justify paying $20 for Yankee candles.  I'm sure they are fabulous but I'm cheap.  ;)  I used some OLD May Arts burlap and some newer May Arts pearl lace to decorate these.  It was a pretty quick project but I really think it elevates these simple little candles.

Have a great day friends!  Send over some labor dust!  :)  

Season's Greetings Gift Bag

Hi friends!  I hope you're having a great day!  We are doing ok here.  I was up at 4am not feeling so hot so I am a bit tired.  Other than that, we are doing ok.  Just trying to get ready for the baby and the holidays.

Here's a gift bag I made that I'm entering in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge.  For this bag, I used some Echo Park paper/sticker, some lace tape, and May Arts 1 inch grosgrain satin edge ribbon.

Have a great day, friends!

Last Halloween Projects...Promise!

Hi friends!  I hope you're having a great day!   We had a fun Halloween even though our neighborhood was surprising not in the Halloween spirit last night.  We had to go 5-7 houses before finding one house with the lights on and then crossed our fingers that they would actually answer.  But the kids had fun and I had fun handing out candy after trick or treating for 1/2 a block.  I couldn't be out any longer b/c I felt sorry for the poor little kids walking around on our street with no houses to go to.

One last Halloween project today.  I didn't want to post it yet because it was featured on the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog yesterday.  I had the honor of guest designing for them.  Here's what I made with the Haunted House stamp set.  I used some Whisker Graphics Little Bitty Bags, Halloween Divine Twine, and paper from DCVW.

Have a good day, friends!  

Happy Halloween

Hi friends!  Happy Halloween!!!  I hope that you are all SAFE and maybe even able to have a little fun tonight.  The kids are super excited for tonight!  They want to trick or treat at "100 houses" but I don't think we'll make it that far!  My kids LOVE the number 100, they think it's the hugest number ever.  ;)

Today, I'm sharing some treat bags I made for Brady's teachers.  He has a teacher and then there's a teacher's assistant in his class.  I give them both the same thing.  Is that what you do?  I'm not sure if I should be giving his main teacher more?  Confusing.  Anyhow, I used a Whisker Graphics Chevron Middy Bitty Bag as the base of these.  The paper, boo tag things, and the sentiments are from a DCWV stack.  I added some Halloween Divine Twine and wrote Brady's name with white gel pen.  

Have a Happy Halloween!  Keeping all my friends affected by Hurricane Sandy in my thoughts.

Bitty Bag Packaging

Hi friends!  I hope you're having a great day!  We are ok over here.  Just the same stuff.

Today, I'm sharing a super quick packaging idea.  I was baking some cookies for a family function and decided that we should give some to Brady's teacher.  Of course, we had to package them up cute if we are going to give them away.  I used a Pink Frosting Bigger Bitty Bag and Scrolly Square Sweet Sticky Label.  Super simple but it makes it a special gift.

Have a great day, friends!  

Whisker Graphics Gift Packaging

Hi friends! Nothing new to report here. Hope you are doing well. We are getting some rain here. I need to go out and buy the kids some raincoats. They really want to go outside and splash. Too bad those kids just keep growing.

Today, I'm sharing these gifts I packaged up for Brady's teachers for Valentine's Day. Clearly, I'm a little late in blogging. The notes on these packages are the Whisker Graphics FREE Valentine's Printables. These can be used all year round. They are fabulous and so easy to use, just print, cut, and fold! I used Pink Polka Dot Bigger Bitty Bags and some washi tape. Very easy packaging but festive and fun.

I'm linking this up to Sugar and Dots What I Whipped Up Wednesday. She is also hosting a Whisker Graphics GIVEAWAY on this post! Check it out!

Have a great day, friends!

Whisker Graphics September Project

Here's the project that I have blogged on the Whisker Graphics Blog today.

My friend Andrea opened up her own business called Home Sweet Creations where she hand pours all natural candles. Right now, she's focused on creating lovely scents and custom candles. She asked me if I could help her come up with some nice packaging for either boutiques or craft fairs. She also offers plain candles that you can decorate yourself for weddings, parties, etc... You can find them on Facebook HERE.

The first part of Andrea's problem was that customers don't really want a label on the candle advertising a brand, she does have her info on the bottom of the candles. To solve this, I simply cut part of a kraft Grid Little Bitty Bag and slipped it under the decoration with her business card in it. It's not so in your face, but a customer can take the card and keep it for further purchases.

Here's what the candle looks like without the business information. This is how a person would display it in their home. Just a few simple steps really takes the value of the candle up and makes this nice enough to sell in a fancy boutique.

Supplies used:

~Home Sweet Creations candle

~Brown Sugar Divine Twine

~Grid Little Bitty Bag in kraft

~kraft paper

~border punch

~lace tape

~flower die cut

~pearl

Pirate Party Pictures

Ok, last month we had a birthday party for the boys. We combined their birthdays into one party since their birthdays are only 5 days apart. They like the same things and they have the same friends so this is just easier for everyone involved. Here I'm just highlighting a few of the DIY things we did for the party. I'll probably post more pictures on Facebook.

Let's start with the invites again. Made in Photoshop by Dustin, photo by me.

The BIG hit of the party, the watermelon pirate ship. Dustin carved it and made the wooden things, I just made the sails with stamps from Unity's Pirate Madness.

Here's the food. I had little pirates holding up signs of what kind of food we had. The food card things are stamped with The Cat's Pajamas Arrgh! Piratey set. Here you'll see the "octopus" dip and the deviled "eyeballs."

We had a game where the kids searched for treasure, whoever found the special marked ones were the winners. The little markers are made with my Cat's Pajamas stamps again.

Here's the dress up station. We didn't really make it, just set it up.

Here's the treasure map. I distressed the paper and Dustin drew the map using landmarks from our yard.

Here are the cupcake picks I made. I colored each one with Copics and highlighted with gel pen. The images are from The Cat's Pajamas.

Here's a further away shot of the dessert table.

And here are the loot bags made with a Unity image.

Have a great day everyone!

FWF: Pirate Loot

Hi friends! Hope you are having a great day! I'm rather glad it's the weekend! YAY!

Here's another project I made for the kids's birthday party. Honestly, I really wanted to get a picture of these bags before they got opened but I was so busy at the party, I just didn't get a chance. I asked someone else to take a picture of them but the picture was blurry. I'm pretty sad. But here's one that was already opened. I tried to put it back as best I could. I used Unity's Pirate Madness set for this. I spelled the rest of the sentiment out in stickers. The bag is a Bigger Bitty Bag from Whisker Graphics.

Don't forget to check out the Unity Blog to see everyone participating in this week's hop. Leave comments everywhere you go, there's candy hidden! Have a great weekend friends!

Baby Shower Gift

Hi friends! I hope you're all having a great week! I'm rather ready for the weekend already. :) Anyone else feel that way? I was a little sick on Wednesday morning so hopefully today will be better. But the kids seem to be doing good so that makes me happy.

I'm so behind on blogging lately. I have projects just sitting on my computer ready to be edited and blogged but I just haven't gotten around to it. It's odd but I guess I just need to prioritize and things are going ok at home so that will just have to be how it goes.

Alright, last month we had a baby shower for a friend of mine. She just had a baby girl last week and she's adorable. I am showing you the gift I made for her. We didn't have a lot of extra money last month with Christmas and our trip so I knew I needed to make a gift. When I had Parker, I received MANY wonderful gifts. One of my favorites came from my pal Shannon. As part of a giant purely fabulous gift set that Shannon sent me, there was a box of thank you notes. And let me tell you, it was such a relief to have them. To just be able to take one out and send off a thank you. It was FABULOUS! So, that's what I decided to make.

I made two different styles of cards. Mostly because I didn't have enough paper to make all of them the same. I was actually able to make all these cards in just a few hours. Plus as I was leaving, I decided that I wanted to make a matching bag. I was able to throw this together REALLY quickly which I love!

Card Details:

Card Stock: pink

Patterned Paper: Stampin Up

Stamp: Taylored Expressions Hangin' Out

Misc: Fiskars border punch, SU ribbon, Nesties circles, Nesties Labels 1