A Special Gift

Hi friends!  It's Christmas Eve!  For Cubans, this is our big day.  We have Noche Buena dinner at my sister's house.  She normally puts on a beautiful event.  She's a great hostess!

I come from a large family.  There are four siblings and we all have families.  Our gatherings are always 30+ and they are a lot of fun.  Obviously, this poses a challenge for gift-giving.  What we do is everyone buys for the children and then the grown ups participate in a Secret Santa.   My Secret Santa is Cassandra, my nephew's girlfriend.  She's a very sweet young woman and loves handmade gifts, so I was thrilled to have her.  Her list included a bed rest pillow, a cup warmer and some gym stuff.  So, I got her what she wanted and a $50 gift card to Burlington.  I then created these adorable magnets with photos of her and Josh over the years.  I cannot wait to give it to her.  I'm sure she won't be there tonight, but I really hope she loves her gift as much as I loved making it for her!

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

the light on my desk kept reflecting off of the glass marbles.

Because the beads are so heavy, I had to double up on the magnets.

Close up of one of them.  The bead actually magnifies the picture.

I custom created a matchbox with two sections.  I still had to add adhesive so that they wouldn't move in there,
but it was an almost perfect fit.  The final gift had a tag with her name on it.  Nothing elaborate.

Christmas Treats

Hi friends,

I've been pretty busy lately putting together treat holders for Christmas.  One of my friends asked me to make her 30 treat holders for the office runners at her school.  I gladly obliged.  I used My Creative Time and Papertrey Ink products as well as Stampin Up card stock and ink.

Take a peek.

My Creative Time - All Around Christmas stamp set

Stickles are non negotiable!  

Papertrey Ink - Santa Stationery

They both bold Hershey's Kisses

GIft Card Holders

Hi friends,

I love to package gifts in pretty fashion...whether they're  a gift card or an actual gift.  I learned how to make these cute gift card holders through Stamp TV.  The tutorial is HERE.  It was not hard to make at all.  I used velcro to make them stay shut.  I also added a belly band on some of them to avoid having to cut on the Cricut.  (Gasp...I know).  Each one has different patterned paper on the inside and a space to write a note.

I used many different papers and ribbons.  The sentiments are mostly My Creative Time and PaperTrey Ink.  I LOVE these!!!

I heat embossed this one.  

Liquid Applique is the BEST

Ribbon Wreath Christmas Card

Hi friends,

I've always wanted to make a card with a ribbon wreath, but never quite got it right.  Until now. YAY!

I used Stampin Up Very Vanilla cardstock. The base is 5 1/2".  The top layer is 5 1/4" and was run through the cuttlebug for the snowflake embossing.  I then used Stampin Up 1 1/4" Grossgrain ribbon in Certainly Celery - Thanks to Norma for the present.

I used dimensionals to pop up the card and hot glued my wreath to it.  The tutorial for it is HERE.  I will forewarn that it takes A LOT of ribbon.

The sentiment is Papertrey Ink and I used SU ink.

Here you go!

A Very Strange Dream

I had the strangest dream. It was December 13th and I had a ton of crafting ideas running around my head that hadn't materialized into anything. I had craft projects for the kids classrooms, gift card holders, tags for family, handmade gifts...so many projects. All undone. Materials purchased, but only samples made. It was truly a nightmare.

Then..I woke up and realized it wasn't a dream at all! I have so many things that I've started and have remained incomplete. Sigh. It seems that the year is flying by and I am just running behind.

Ill share some treat holders that I fully intend to finish before School lets out next week. How are your projects coming?

Scrabble Frame

Hi everyone,

I've been eyeing scrabble tile projects lately.  Yesterday I created this little Scrabble frame.  Very simple and cute.  It looks lop-sided, but it's not.

Try it.  It's super easy.

A Wonderful Thanksgiving Table & A Challenge

Hi everyone,

We had a wonderful evening last night.  I have three siblings and we all get together with my husband's family.  My eldest sister doesn't normally come since she lives in Tennessee and we are in Miami, but we do all have a wonderful time together.

We had a total of 26 last night.  I wanted each family to have something nice to take home with them, so I created these beautiful cylinder candle holders.  Each family had their surname etched into the glass.  I think they turned out gorgeous and my table looked beautiful!

UPDATED: I'm going to enter this into Die Cutting Diva's Challenge #92 - Thanksgiving.

I found these great MINI lights at Walmart that are battery operated.  Perfect for the centerpieces.

Pinecones had been spraypainted gold

I love how these turned out.  So pretty.  I used Plantin Schoolbook for the font and My Creative Time XL Label Die and
Piles of Smiles for the napkin rings.

These cookies were tied by ribbon to the kids' utensils.  The pumpkin is made of three oval punches.  The leaf if My Creative Time from the Piles of Smiles

My original thought was to put a banner on each plant..but I made them a little big, so I just laid it on the table.  It's only around 16" long.  Letters were cut at 1.75"  I used Planting and the banner layers are from Birthday Bash.