Tuesday, December 31, 2013

December 2013 Totally Tuesday Link Party: Link up anything from the past YEAR!

It's that time of the month gang, Totally Tuesday Link Party time!

Since it is New Year's Eve, I've decided for this Totally Tuesday, ya'll can show off any of your favorites from the past YEAR!



Normally the Totally Tuesday Link Party is only projects from the past month, but I thought with it being the new year and all- why not look back at your favorites! All you have to do is link up ANY project you've done in the past year. That's right, ANY project from 2013 that you have done! Add some of your favorite projects, tips, recipes, room reveals, lists, etc.! I know you all have done some awesome projects this past year, and we'd love to check them all out. I encourage you all to check out other links posted too- it is a link party after all! We had some super fabulous projects linked up in the past, so I'm excited to see what you all have to show off! I'll pick some of my favorites, once you all have linked up your projects!

All I ask is that you:

  • Please follow the Host- that's me! (see the social media buttons in the right corner of the blog- follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Bloglovin, Instagram- whatever is your favorite means of following).
  • Link up your own projects- no giveaways or advertisements please. (you can link as many projects as you'd like, but it should be from the past year- 2013).

Other than that, just have fun! If you have a place to post my blog button (which can be found in my sidebar to the right), great! If not, no biggie- but it would make me a super happy blogger if you did. ;)


Have a Totally Awesome Tuesday and link away! Remember, it can be anything from the past YEAR!
Thanks all! -M
Now on to the link party!

Sunday, December 29, 2013

2013 Year in Review Infographic Letter

Once again this year I created an Infographic style End-of-the-Year Letter that I sent along with my Christmas cards. I took the basic layout that I did last year, and changed up the icons, changed up some colors of things, fonts and of course- new things happened this year, so new text!


I got the cat, people, and car icons from Nicole's Classes, where the rest I created myself (ornaments, star, heart, house, megaphone, word bubble and banner). Last year I created all the icons myself, but this year, I just didn't have the time to change the ones I wanted different and I found these to be too cute. I kept the house icon the same as last year (just different colors) and added our little house sign to it, since that is what our house looks like now. ;)
A friend of mine liked last year's so much, she decided to do something similar with her Christmas letter, and told me flat out- "Yeah, I totally stole your idea." It's ok hun, it is super cute, and I got the idea from many others on Pinterest myself! lol
Have a very Happy New Year everyone!
Enjoy!
-M

Thursday, December 26, 2013

My 2013 Christmas Cards: Loving Sparkle and Embossing

Hello all! I know I'm really behind in posting these (considering it is now past Christmas) but I got a little busy. Also, I wanted to make sure the people I sent them to got them, before I posted them. hehe.
I made 80+ handmade Christmas cards this year (a daunting task if you ask me!) Below are some of the cards I made (the rest are variations of these cards).


This year, after making my framed art as gifts to some, I had a few items leftover, so you'll notice some reusing of stamped images and products. This at least made it a little easier to put the cards together.



Also this year I used some pre-cut card backings to make the cardmaking process a little quicker (and they came with envelopes too!) I used a few of the packaged card bases from Micheal's, but I dressed them up to meet my needs, such as these snowflaked punched card bases-where I embossed, punched, stamped, washi taped and blinged them out.



This year I am all about the sparkle, embossing folders and washi tape. ;)

Enjoy the rest of the cards I made this year!








I hope you all had a great holiday and I know I'm looking forward to the new year!
-M

Blue and Silver Snowy Winter 8 by 10 Framed Art Gift with Squares

Happy Holidays everyone!
Now that Christmas is over, I finally am starting to get my life back, which means I finally have some time to blog- it has been a CRAZY December- doing a show, Christmas parties, work and family visiting, so I have kind of been neglecting the blog-o here (I apologize profusely!).
I had wanted to share this a while ago, but with the December madness, I never got a chance.
For some family and a few close friends I decided this year to make some papercrafted framed art.


I got inspired after making this one at a Stampin Up! class by Jill Hilliard at Crop Pink this year:

Now square frames are EXPENSIVE, so I decided to make a version that fit in a standard 8x10 frame.
Can I just say, cranking out 14 of these was a huge undertaking! The class was very quick, so I thought, "Hey, I can do this for gifts in a snap." What I forgot was that the class had everything already cut, measured, designed and punched- so of course it didn't take that long. lol

After making 14 of my framed art pieces, I was dreading making my Christmas cards (all 80 of those I had to make), but I stuck with it, and finished both the frames and my cards before Christmas (sent them all out the Friday before Christmas, but hey, beggers can't be choosers!)

I used Papertrey Ink's Tiny Treats Christmas Set for the little characters, Papertrey Ink's snowflake additions set for the words, Stampin Up!'s snowflake stamp set (Festive Flurry) and punch for the large snowflakes and their sparkle paper on the edges and dressing up. I also used the dot embossing folder on a few of the squares. The paper and other stamps are ones I had from a long time ago, so honestly I couldn't tell you what those were. lol. I sparkled things up with stick on gems and Stickles added more sparkle to the tiny characters, snowflakes and ticket.


I think they turned out pretty in the end, they just ended up being a LOT of work to make 14 of them. If I only had to make a few, it wouldn't have been so time consuming!


Have a great day and stay tuned for me to post my belated Christmas cards for the year. ;)
Laters!
-M

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Now that December is upon us, I thought it would be the right time to show ya'll some of my Christmas decorations. I'm still in the process of finding a good overall Christmas theme for the house, but for now, it mostly is red and silver, with hints of green. Since I worked Thanksgiving, I got started on my decorations a little early this year, but decided to wait till at least the beginning of December to show ya'll. ;)


My favorite addition to our holiday decorations this year is our wall advent calendar (above) that I created with mini red takeout boxes (they came in 4 packs at the dollar store- so overall, $6 for the boxes total!) I wanted to use white dimensionals for the numbers, but quickly realized I didn't have enough to make all the numbers in one style, so I mixed them up with different styles. Each box has a little note inside that I wrote with some love and a clue to what little item I got the hubs for that day (since they didn't all fit in the boxes). Each day leading up to Christmas I got a little $1-$5 item for the hubs (and vice versa) to add some holiday spirit through the entire month of December, not just on the 25th.


We decided to move our Christmas tree into our dining room, since we've since aquired more seating in our living room (no space for the tree). Our tree is pretty tall and thin, so it fits perfect in front of the window in that room. Sadly though, I'm still trying to figure out where the short or broken bulb is in the top portion of lights, but from the above angle, you can barely tell! lol.


I also found these adorable large sparkle pointesettas for our front porch at the Family Dollar in a Buy one get one free sale ($4 for 2)- perfect to match the red sparkle on the inside of the house AND they won't ever die on me. hehe



I actually really like our little white picket fence during Christmas time- I wish it looked this cute year round. lol. I added green garland and little red bows along the entire picket fence. I think it dresses it up nicely.


I went more minimal with our little shelf above the tv- using a tray I made at a scrapbooking crop a few years ago, a little wooden angel my grandfather made and a mini candycane tree. Since the shelf is not very wide, there is only so much I can put up there without it falling off.


This year I decorated minially upstairs too, by adding little red stockings to our bedroom and bathroom windows, with red swag.


I had gotten these cute stockings on clearance last year at Target, and have been looking forward all year to get to use them this year!


The rest of the house is a mix of silver/white, red and a little bit of green. I adore snowflakes, so they are mixed in all over the place (I keep the snowflakes up all the way through till Valentine's Day. Hearts and snowflakes, all the way!)


 We also aquired these two wing-backed chairs from a co-worker of mine (we moved the black chairs upstairs into our bedroom), so I added some holiday pillows to dress them up. I like to think of my decor as a mix of modern and old world, all rolled up into one. As I told my friend a few days ago, I'm trying to make thriftyness cool with all my "dollar store chic" decor and miss-matched furniture. lol

 Here is a simple way to add some color to any place- Christmas ornaments in a vase!

... and here is my favorite winter door decor. ;)



Right now I've been in the midst of preparing for "Brigadoon" which we open up on stage tomorrow (Thursday) at the Newtown Theatre with the Newtown Arts Company. My hubs is playing Jeff and I'm playing Maggie. So far its been fun and there is a great group of people involved- however it has been taking up a LOT of my free time. 



The cast also got together this past weekend and sang a few songs from the show and some Christmas carols at the Bucks County Visitors Center's Tree Fest, where the theater company has a Brigadoon-themed tree (above). 


I've also been slowly trying to eat up all our leftovers from our early Thanksgiving. My favorite recipe thus far from the leftovers is this Turkey Chili the hubs cooked up. LOVE it! It is kind of a mix of chili and pulled turkey, as the turkey isn't ground (like most chili recipes). 


All in all, I still am not 100% set on our Christmas decor and I also still want to put lights on the house. a few days ago I found cute fake candles for the windows, that I think add a nice touch at night. However, Wendy (my kitty cat) loves to knock them over out of the window. Christmas time (to my dismay at times) with all the extra Christmas pillows and shiny objects all over the house, is I think her favorite too. lol


Well, that's our winter/Christmas decor right now. Have you decorated for the holidays yet, or do you wait till later in the month? I'd love to hear from ya'll on when you decorate!
Have a great day!
-M