12 Tags of Christmas: Day 1

I am just loving Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas! I went back to Day 1 and am going to try to get through as many as I can. It is taking me a while to do each one, but I am enjoying the creative process. Here is Tim's Day 1 Tag:

His is absolutely gorgeous! I love all of the sparkle and pinecone/greenery elements. Here is my version:

The base of the tag was run through the Cuttlebug using a snowflake folder. Then I stamped over it in gray.  I used some sparkle polka dot paper for the title. I found some bits of ribbon and some bling to dangle at the top. After searching through Cricut carts, Camp Out came through for me with the pine cones and leaves. The dark green branches are a Martha Stewart punch.

12 Tags of Christmas: Day 5

I don't know how I am only now discovering Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas! It seems like everyone is talking about this fabulous event. I wish I had time to do them all because they are all stunning. I started with the one that seemed to be the least involved. I am mid construction on two others and hope to get them posted before Christmas.

Here is Tim's tag: 

 Here is my version of the Day 5 tag:

As you can see, mine is super simple. I used some Christmas paper that had words printed on it. I wish the words were white, but I have to make due with what I have. I realize that I need to add white ink to my shopping list. The wreath is made from the Martha Stewart Branch punch and since I didn't have any pearls in my stash, I used bling instead. This was so much fun, that I may even try another variation of this.

Christmas Cards

On Black Friday, I stopped by the local stamp store and was able to add two awesome new Christmas stamps to my collection - the snow globe and the fir tree. Right now I don't have the time to make cards for our entire mailing list, so I'm only doing a handful for our closest family and friends. Here are my two designs. Both have glitter on them which is difficult to see in the pictures. I'm trying to do coordinating tags too!

Chocolate Stars

When I was little my mom always used to buy the Stauffers Chocolate Stars as a special treat for the holidays. They were always my favorite.  I sort of forgot about them until last year when I was at a card making party and my friend served them on her cookie tray. I fell in love all over again.

But I was unable to find any place in MA that carries them. Luckily I have some amazing friends in PA who were kind enough to send me several boxes of both the milk & dark chocolate variety. Here is the Thank You card I'm sending to them. I highly recommend if you find them to grab a box - but be warned they are very very addicting!!

Giveaway Winner!

Happy December!

The winner of my November blog hop giveaway is......

Congratulations to lucky #3 -- Crystal aka Caitlynsmommy!!

Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop Challenge - Home Decor & A Giveaway!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Welcome to the November Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop Challenge! You should have arrived here from Bethany's blog, if not you can head back to the start to see the list of participants. This month the challenge was to make a home decor item. This is not my area of expertise. However, that is just one of the things I LOVE about Counterfeit Kit - every month challenges me in new ways and makes scrapping even more fun.

I picked up a chipboard ornament mini book at Michaels in their $1 bin and was inspired to use this to create my own ornament. I didn't have any Christmas paper in my kit so I decided to make a photo frame of my husband water skiing for the first time.

My favorite part of the ornament is the shrink plastic tag I made using the stamps in my kit. Have I mentioned my new addiction to shrink plastic? :)

In honor of Thanksgiving, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Meridy and Bethany for creating the Counterfeit Kit Blog and for all of the design team members who are so inspiring month after month. I have learned to find new (but "old") treasures in my stash and to look at products in different ways. I'd like to provide a small giveaway as part of my thank you! All you have to do is leave a comment and I'll randomly select a winner on Thursday, December 1!

Thanks for participating in the hop this month! Hope to see you all in December!

Thanksgiving Card

Earlier this month, I saw an awesome technique from one of the Counterfeit Kit design team members that I was so excited to try. Shrink plastic!! Check out Milissa's tutorial here. After a few hours of searching, I found my missing package of Shrinky Dinks. Since I am at my parent's house, I don't have my Cricut and had to go to the old stand-by of cookie cutter stencils. Luckily my mom had 2 cutters that matched my paper perfectly!

Thanksgiving Cookie Cutters

Shrink Plastic/Card

I simply traced the cookie cutters on the plastic, cut, punched a hole for the string and shrunk! So super easy! This year I also made sugar cone cornicopia's as favors.

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!