Not too Shabby...

I am so honored to have been asked to be the September guest designer over at Shabby Chic Crafts! Veronica has some of the most gorgeous tags... lots with that lovely vintage look that is becoming so sought-after in the scrapbooking community these days! I had so much fun creating with them, and would love to share some of my projects with you!

First up, a layout about Hazel's first day of school made using theWood Grain Tags (one of my absolute FAVORITES), a Vintage School Card, one of the Vintage School Circles, and lots of yummy Cosmo Cricket and Sass goodies!







Next up: my December Daily journal for this year! It feels like such an accomplishment to have it done so far in advance, and the Shabby Chic Crafts tags were the perfect addition to this colorful album! I used one of the Creative Imaginations Easel Frame Albums for this, and I love that it has the easel back that pops out so that my book can stand up, and be displayed throughout this holiday season! Plus, lots of last year's KI Memories Christmas goodies...




And my final project... a 2010 calendar (and this month's 12 Months of Christmas project)! This is a super easy gift to make for a family member, and can easily be completed in an evening or two. It uses up lots of those scraps you have lying around, and its creative possibilities are endless! (If you're my mom, and happen to be reading this, now would be a good time to avert your eyes... unless you want to spoil one of your Christmas gifts). ;0)



For my calendar, I used 2 pieces from an older Maya Road acrylic album. The pieces are thick enough that they support the calendar on their own when stood open. The covers are adorned with buttery Hambly rubs, some teensy Thickers, and a Vintage Label. For the insides, I trimmed lots of colorful Hambly scraps to fit, using a corner rounder punch to finish them off. Then, I added a photo of the kids to each calendar page. I tried to print a picture from this year (or last) that was taken during the month that it represents on the calendar.



For the calendar itself, I not only wanted a tiny little calendar, but a place for the recipient to add little notes each month. So, to accomodate that wish (and to add some extra color), I actually combine two Shabby Chic Crafts calendar tags! I used the Vintage Note Calendars for the base. Then, I trimmed the edges off of the Square Stamp Calendars, and added them on top of the calendar that was printed onto the Vintage Note Calendar tags (the calendar is the same size).



You can use tiny pearls and gems to mark special dates (i.e. birthdays, holidays, etc.) on the calendars. And, for some added decoration, you can add some tiny flowers centered with more gems. This is a great way to use up all those jars of tiny Prima flowers I'm sure you have lying around!





To bind the calendar together, I punched holes at the tops of each calendar page and reenforced them with some... wait for it...

EYELETS!

See, I told you this was a great way to use up your supplies! I'll bet you haven't played with eyelets in years, huh? To be honest, it was kind of fun to break out the hammer and setter, and pound away! To put the whole calendar together, I used some earring hoop findings. Binder rings aren't thin enough to go through the eyelets, so earring hoops it was!

It was such a fun project to make, and I hope you'll give it a go! It makes a quick check-off on your Christmas list too. ;0)

A big thanks to Veronica at Shabby Chic Crafts for having me as their guest designer this month! Please check out their blog, and leave a comment here for a chance to win some fabulous fall tags (she's leaving the contest open for a couple extra days, so there's still time)!

crazy...

A while back, I was asked to guest for The Design Experiment. And, I realized that I never shared my project (or the little story behind it) with all of you here.

The prompt was to scrap the craziest thing you have ever done. Me? Crazy? I don't really think anything I do to be all that "crazy" or "adventurous." I'm more of the "play it safe" type girl. Skydiving? Never. I hate flying... I'm certainly not going to JUMP out of a perfectly good airplane ON PURPOSE! Bungee jumping? Don't think so. I don't prefer to go careening head-first towards the ground with only a tiny little chord to keep my head from exploding onto the ground like a watermelon.

So, what was I supposed to scrap about? I thought, and I thought. Then I thought some more. One afternoon, I decided to sort through some old photos that had been piling up inside a box in my craft room. I came across some photos of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. That's it! That's what I would scrap about.

I was younger, more naive, love-struck. I sold off all my worldy possessions and "moved" to St. Thomas. I use quotation marks only because it hardly lasted. I soon came to realize that I made a huge mistake, and cut my losses... moving back home. But, that's a longer, more private story. Not one for Blogger ears.

But, here's my page... beautiful pictures of a crazy opportunity that I just had to chase after at that point in my life.





So, there you go... you learned something about me that I'll bet you didn't know before. Do I wonder what my life would have been like had I stayed there? Sometimes. Not often. I realize that I would never be where I am today had I stayed there. And, I happen to love where I am today.

Posting this made me think of my girl, Sasha... formerly part of The Design Experiment team. She has her own thing going on these days. Something exciting. Something that I so honored to be a part of. Seriously, there are some fabulous ladies that I will be creating alongside. Have you heard of this yet...



No? Well, you should definitely join us here. We go live September 1st. Be there or be square. Trust me... you won't want to be square.

Well, that's it for tonight. I'll be back tomorrow with the first catch-up post in my 12 months of Christmas project!

checking in...

Well, we are thoroughly enjoying our vacation in Florida. Oh, did I forget to mention that I would be abandoning this blog for a couple of weeks while we are gone? Sorry about that. I must admit, it has been nice to step away from the virtual world for just a bit. But, I don't want to leave you totally uninspired while I'm away. So, I have something crafty and exciting to share in the meantime!

I am so honored to have been asked by Fiskars to design a project for their "Summer School" program. From May 21st through September 1st, every Tuesday and Thursday, a fun paper-crafting tutorial will be featured as part of the "Summer School" crafting curriculum! My project? The "Little Black Dress..."



That little beauty was made entirely out of Chatterbox papers and Fiskars punches (with a few pretty Chatterbox embellishements to boot). For full project instuctions, please visit the Fiskars wesbite via this link.

I'll be back over the next few days with lots of fun pictures from our visit to my dad's house... and the Disney theme parks! Until then...

Finally... PEEKS!

Well, Label Tulip really got put on the back-burner this month (more about that later). I had bits and pieces of my pages put together for a week or so, but didn't pull them all together until late last night! But, I'm super-lovin' what I came up with this month! I hope you enjoy it to. Be sure to check out the Label Tulip gallery tomorrow at 6pm PST for the full gallery reveal. In the meantime, here are some sneakies...









Now, for the reason I was running so behind this month... I was asked to be a guest designer for none other than Prima! You can check out my projects here! And, stay tuned in the next couple of months for another HUGE guest DT spot that I am super and duper excited for! ;0)

Hello. Hello.

Well, I didn't mean to be away that long. I've actually had quite a bit to share over the last few days. But, as you know... the holidays seem to keep us all quite busy. Computer work has been on the bottom of the to-do list for quite a while. To be honest... so has creating. But, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. All of the family presents have been wrapped, and are in the mail (as of this afternoon). The shopping is done. The doll house is well on its way to completion (thank heavens). So, why do I still feel so overwhelmed? Probably because I had planned on being done with all of my deadlines and obligations by yesterday so that I could officially enjoy the last week and a half before Christmas. As it is, I'll be lucky if I can get everything done by Saturday and enjoy the last 4 days before Santa arrives.

There are still Label Tulip projects to be made... thanks to the sucky USPS for losing my first package from LT. I still have projects to make with my goodies from Sketchbook Designs. There is baking to be done, presents to be wrapped, packing to be done (we're going to DC after Christmas). Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it, and I'm sure there are still some things I left off of that list.

On a happier note, I got a huge shipment of goodies from Chatterbox! Seriously. Huge. The box stood about half-way up my thigh and weighed over 50 lbs! I've never worked for such a generous company. Here are a few peeks at the contents. Although, it is impossible to grasp how much product there really was... at least 3 of everything they made! These pictures certainly don't do the stash justice!





Now, what to do with all of that delicious product? To spite how busy everything has been, I had to take some time out this weekend to play! So, how about a quick little project idea? Marie from Sketchbook Designs included this cute little 6x6 white acrylic mini-book in my box of stuff to play with. And, I had some 6x6 pockets lying around from sarabinders. These are the particular pockets I used for this project. And, ya' know what those pockets are perfect for? Holding CD's. So, I made a little storage album to put all of my CD's full of family pictures after I download them to my computer and burn them off.



And I swear, the new "Together" line from Chatterbox was made just perfectly for a project like this! The line includes cardstock labels, stickers, numbers and date embellishments... among lots of other stuff. It coordinates with all of the Willow, Peacock Ruby and Chocolate embellishments and alphas from the artsy.liscious line. Love those colors! Here's what the inside pockets look like:









Well, that's all I have for today. Now, if you'll excuse me... I have some cookies to bake, and a pile of Label Tulip stuff to start on. I'll be back later with some peeks. By the way, the LT gallery will be posted later this month on Dec 20th at 6pm PST. I'm not the only one of the girls that had issues with their package arriving. So, stay tuned for a couple of peeks this week and the full reveal on Saturday.

*stuff it*

So, I've finally got my Christmas cards done. Well, some of them anyway. I've got to tell you... I LOVE these snowflakes from Sketchbook Designs! Marie sent me so much awesome product to work with, but I just can't put these snowflakes away. There are so many possibilities... cover them in glass glitter (like on the "Noel" card), add little rhinestones, or just use them in all their beautiful simplicity! The fabulous mirrored letters on the 2nd "let It Snow" card are also from Sketchbook Designs... so pretty!







So, now that I have cards, I need some pictures to stuff them with. Hazel, by herself (even with the dog), takes a pretty cute pic...





But, add Luka AND the dog into the mix? Forget about it! Even Luka and Hazel by themselves ends in a lot of botched pictures. I got two that are pretty darn cute...





I'm having a hard time deciding which one to use in the Christmas cards. As cute as the kissing one is, I think my family would appreciate the one where they can see their faces and how they've grown. I just wish Luka would smile more in pictures, rather than that blank expression. So, which picture do you think I should use?

On to Friday Fill-Ins...

1. Snow. I miss it. It just doesn't feel like Christmas without it.

2. I'm looking forward to Hazel's cheerleading competition tomorrow.

3. Orville Redenbacher's Cracked Pepper Natural Popcorn is the best popcorn ever! I'm sooo... addicted!

4. One of my favorite old tv shows is Designing Women. I know. Embarrassing, right?

5. I'm done with quite a bit of my to-do list for this week. Finally!

6. The most enjoyable thing around the holidays is the food. Food, glorious food! I'll be starting my diet on Jan 1st.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a lot, tomorrow my plans include Hazel's cheerleading competition and building her dollhouse for Christmas and Sunday, I want to put up our outside Christmas lights!

That's it. Happy Friday peeps!

Dear December,

How did you manage to sneak up on me this year? I swear, last week June and I were kickin' it. But, now I'm trying to get acquainted with these frosty mornings where you can see your breath lingering in the air. How is it possible that the summer sun has already gone on vacay? Don't get me wrong, I love the chilly temperatures that you bring with you. I love the mornings filled with hot chocolate, knit slippers, and Christmas music floating happily about my living room. Hey, I know that you can't turn back the clock, but could you at least slow down a little bit? I am not in the holiday spirit. I need more time. I'm just not feeling ya' yet, December. So, don't you dare go thinking that you can fast forward to Christmas day in the blink of an eye. Don't you dare... or I might not be willing to kiss and make up when you decide you want to get back together next year.

xo,
Holly

P.S. I thought I would include some pictures of the ornaments I made for the swap I hosted over at Label Tulip. You know, in some attempt to prove that I haven't totally wasted the first two days you've managed to whiz right past me. Again, if you could just slow down a little bit, I could get more pretty little things like these made.









Don't you just love those pretty little snowflakes? A couple of weeks ago, Marie of Sketchbook Designs asked if I would be interested in working with some of her fabulous products, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity! Be sure to check back over the next few days to see what else I have created with the goodies that she sent me... lots of fun Christmas projects and gift ideas! In the meantime, you might want to take a look around her Etsy store. She makes tons of cute wood, chipboard, mirrored and acrylic shapes, in addition to some wonderfully crafted acrylic albums... perfect to add to your list for Santa. ;0)

Oh, and one more thing... Label Tulip's stamp boutique is officially open for business again! In addition to the stamps, you won't want to miss out on the limited-time offer of some fabulous grab bags and 40% off all available previous kits (except from November). But, hurry up and stuff your stockings! Supplies are limited to stock on-hand, and won't be available after December 31st!