Santa Hat

Yes, I am a little out of season. Sorry for the delay.

Rose Mary was working on a cute layout of her granddaughter back at our crop in January. The lighting wasn't great in the photos, but the pictures were precious.

She had bought a Santa hat embellishment but didn't like it after all, so we proceeded to see what could be done. I found the Santa with suit on Christmas Cheer which was close to the hat she had. I hid everything we didn't need and cut the hat in Cranberry and the trim in Colonial White. Rose Mary inked the edges and added Prisma Glitter to the trim. Then she removed the decoration from the one she bought and added it to the one we made.


But the layout still needed something. Rose Mary really wanted a 12 inch border, so I used the same elements only smaller to make a border. I created it with the view on 24x12 mat so that I could get it long enough and then rotated the design to fit on a 12x6 mat. Lots of hiding selected contours! Again, she inked the edges and added Prisma Glitter.


We thought it turned out pretty dang cute!


You just might see this design again if I ever get around to scrapping my Christmas pictures. I hope you can use the Santa Hat file.

Jill

Southwest Travels

Ok, who took 2010? Where in the world is this year going and can I please get off this merry-go-round for a while?

Well, I did kind of get off for a while and it was GREAT! Our nephew, James, got married a few weeks ago in Tucson, and we decided to make a vacation out of it. We basically had four requirements: Dallas (I had a new baby to cuddle), El Paso (Dave grew up there and I still had not seen it after 12 years of marriage), Tucson in time for the Rehearsal Dinner, and the Grand Canyon (Dave had never seen it and made that request). So once we survived Christmas, I started reading travel books, deciding what cities to visit, looking everything up on the internet, requesting info from Chamber of Commerces and such, making reservations, checking weather, watched Cars again and....

OMG! What a great time we had! The only downers of the trip were not enough time in some places to see the sites and visit friends. Eleven days and ten nights with perfect weather, great accommodations, delicious food and wonderful people. We did Dallas, El Paso, White Sands, Tucson, Sedona, Grand Canyon, more Sedona, Winslow (Standin' on the Corner), Holbrook (Wigwam Motel), Painted Desert, Gallup, Santa Fe, Oklahoma City, Checotah (didn't plan this one but happened to exit looking for McDonalds--home of Carrie Underwood) and HOME.

Everyone has asked me "What was the best (or favorite or prettiest) part of the trip?" My first reponse was that it was all so wonderful that there wasn't a "best". However, on second thought, the "best" was crossing the Arkansas state line coming home. It's true, there's no place like home! And Arkansas was turning green while everywhere else was not. We do have a beautiful state!

All of that to come to my little project. I knew ahead of time that we would have lots of receipts, postcards, pamphlets, etc. from the trip. And I wanted to keep them organized: 1) for when the credit card bill comes (yikes!) and 2) for when I get around to scrapping our journey. So, I designed a book of pockets.

I wanted it tall enough for those brochures you find at hotels on all of the local places and the pockets deep enough that everything would stay. I started with a piece of 12 x 12 cardstock and scored and folded it at 10 inches. I then took another piece of 12 x 12 cardstock in another color and cut it into three 12 x 4 pieces. I adhered one 12 x 4 piece to the 2 inch section of the scored sheet, making a 12 x 14 piece. I then scored and folded it in the middle at 6 inches. Thank goodness for Linda's ScorePal! With everything folded, my pages are 6 x 10 with 4 inch pockets.

I cut chipboard to 6 1/8 x 10 1/4 for the front and back and covered with cardstock and pattern paper. I borrowed Virginia's bind-it-all to put it all together and started adding things to coordinate with where we were going.











It was perfect! And believe me that it is now full.

If anyone is interested in the file, I'll get it cleaned up and posted. It was a fun project and fun to use.

Oh, I must mention that my great friend, Virginia, created the files for the Route 66 sign and the kokopelli using Make The Cut. She did an awesome job!

Jill

Christmas Wonderland

I hope that all of you, your family and loved ones are safe and well. It's so sad what the people in Haiti are going through. Certainly makes you stop and think.

It's been a while since I've actually completed a layout. It seems like I'm always working on a project. Well, this morning I decided that I wanted to do something with the pictures of our yard during Christmas. Dave always does such a wonderful job decorating it for all to enjoy.

I was rather lazy and thought I'd do a digital layout for a change. I've had this Peppermint Kisses kit from Scrap Girls for some time, LOVE the paper and thought it would be perfect. I guess the only other thing I used was a font from my computer, Amazone.


Everything but the snowmen and penguin came down after New Year. What's left will come down tomorrow for Teddy to come out for Valentine's Day.

I've added several blogs to the list on the right column lately. One I added today was What's the Scoop a division of Paper Popsicles. It's a new one and has some cute ideas.

I really need to get everything together so that I can share some Cricut projects with you. I spent most of last weekend covering Target mailboxes. However, I got my original file from someone else and can't figure out who she is or how to get in contact with her. Does anyone know Leann that did a Target Mailbox file?

OK, off to figure out what I've done lately and get some pictures downloaded.

Jill

Reindeer Tags

Well, most of the Christmas decorations are down. Just have to pack some of them away tomorrow and make a trip or two to the storage unit. What happened to December?

I do have a file to share with you today, but it's a very straight forward one. That's to say that I did not make any adjustments to it.

In November, I decided that I wanted to have a Christmas Luncheon sometime in December. I thought it would be difficult as everyone is always so busy at this time of the year. I set the date and sent out an email inviting five of the divas for a Saturday afternoon. To my surprise, they ALL accepted! Then my hopeful Saturday afternoon grew into a full weekend crop with some coming on Friday afternoon, one coming Saturday morning, one only coming for Saturday and everyone else leaving on Sunday. Wow!

Somehow, my idea to make an ornament for each of the girls grew and grew. I made round glitter ornaments and etched their initials in the heart shaped ornaments. My mother had found some heart shaped candy dishes. I came across some Christmas magnetic notepads. I added a Scentsy travel tin, a packet of peppermint cocoa, some peppermint and chocolate candies, a Christmas pencil and a little Christmas game.


Of course, I had to have a nice way to present all of this to them and found these bags at Hobby Lobby just the perfect size. The etched ornament was wrapped in tissue and placed in the candy dish. The glitter ornament was placed in a small Christmas cube box that I got at Michaels. Everything else was placed in a Christmas goodie bag I got at Hobby Lobby. I added red sparkly filler and topped with tissue paper. Then I made tags to match and tied it all up with red ribbon.


Here they are under my pink tree all ready for the girls. Can you see the reindeer tag hanging under the red bow? It's from Very Merry Tags. I cut the tag in black and the layer in red. Then I used Winter Woodland to cut their initial in red and put it on the back of the tag. Why did I not take a close up of the front and back of the tags?


Here we are gathered around my big tree before our ornament exchange and before they received their party bags. Some of the dearest friends a girl could ever hope to have. On the left side is me standing and Kay kneeling. On the right side is Angie in the Arkansas shirt standing next to Virginia with Dawn kneeling and Rose Mary sitting.


We've had our ornament exchange and set those aside. Now it's time to dig in once again. What fun!




All of these goodies and what did they play with? The little toy mazes. You know, the ones that you flip the little thing and the ball ricochets around kind of like a pinball machine. Kids!


It was a wonderful weekend and we had a GREAT time. We all have beautiful ornaments and memories, and we're making plans for next year.

Here's the file for my tags. Again, I didn't make any adjustments to the images. I love this cartridge and hope to make more tags for my Christmas presents this year. I seem to have run out of time last year.

Reindeer Tags

We had another beautiful day here, but COLD. Ok, cold for us. Chance of snow flurries tonight and tomorrow but no accumulation.

Loving 2010,
Jill

P.S. Yahooooooooo! I just found out that the Razorbacks won the Liberty Bowl. Way to go, Hogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Not sure why I didn't watch the game. I forgot about it when we got home from dinner.)

Pink Tree

Happy New Year! I hope that all of you have safely made it to 2010 and have had an awesome first day. It was absolutely beautiful here!

Dave took down part of our outdoor decorations today. More will come down tomorrow. But our snow related items will remain another month. I hate driving home after Christmas when all of the lights have come down and it's so dreary. But then I get home and my house is still bright and cheery.

I've also decided to leave one of my trees up for a while. This tree was added new this year. A few years ago, our Race Committee thank you gift was a Christmas ornament. Mine hangs from an ornament holder all year on an end table in the living room, but I decided that I wanted a pink tree to hang it on for Christmas. Pink decorations weren't the easiest thing to find, but between finding some and making others, I think it turned out great. It's fun and has made me very happy.


It sits on a table in our foyer. Back in 2005, I decided it was time to remove the wallpaper in there and paint. I taped paint samples up and took them down as they were eliminated as a possibility. I finally got it down to THE color. Well, 4 years later, I decided that really was THE color and proceeded to remove the wallpaper. Then I had to contact the painter and get him out here. No, I don't always take that long. I decided as long as he was coming, I'd have him repaint the hallway also. It just took me a week to finalize that color. Anyway, most of the following shots were taken after wallpaper removal and before painting.


Above is the ornament that started it all. The opposite side says "This One's for the Girls" which was our theme that year.


The ornaments above Love above and above and below and to the left of Joy below are some that I made with the clear ornaments and acrylic paint. None of the pictures show the ones I made with glitter or with alcohol ink.




Don't you love my tree topper and the angel wings?


I love it with the lights on.


Yes, it definitely looks better since the walls have been painted.


The penguin and things on the shelf behind the tree are Pink Palooza that I found at Hobby Lobby. So cute AND pink! And the photo is our Race Committee from 2009.

There's really nothing Christmasy on the tree, so I think it's good through Valentine's Day. Other than my snowmen, rest of my decorations will come down tomorrow. I've really enjoyed my decorations this year, so I'm sad to be putting them away.

And, yes, the foyer's color is pink but the hallway is blue.

I'll share more cricut tomorrow but wanted to share part of me to start 2010. I hope you don't mind.

Hugs,
Jill

Snowman Luggage Tags

Yes, I've been doing more luggage tags. I just can't seem to leave them alone. These were for Logan (remember Claire's step-son) and Abby (my daughter-in-law's little sister who LOVES snowmen).


HoHoHo is on Very Merry Tags while the snowmen are on Snow Friends.


Although I did not include them in the file, I used Printing 101 for the names.


Logan was thrilled with his, but Abby hasn't gotten hers yet.

Some of those snowman pieces were so small that they did not cut very well at all. I ended up enlarging pieces for the eyes and mouth for the snowman with his arms down. That's the Eyes & mouth page of the file. The correct size of those pieces are also on the Snowmen Pieces page. I would go ahead and cut that page, then cut the other one only if needed. Who knows, yours may cut ok.

Snowman Luggage Tags

I hope that everyone has a very safe New Year's Eve. This is the night that I try to stay home. Be careful and I'll see you next year.

Happy New Year!

Jill

Crown Gift Card

Back in August, we celebrated Angie and Rose Mary's birthdays. Yes, I am rather behind sharing with you. Sorry. Anyway, here's Rose Mary's card.


This test cut shows it a little better. There's one base cut with tic marks to make folding easier.


Then one crown to layer and bling up.


I stamped Happy Birthday with a CTMH stamp, outlined the crown with Stickles and added gems. Just perfect for our Glitter Queen.

Because of the size of the crown, this one has to be cut on an Expression. However, it is set up to use either George or Plantin along with Happily Ever After.

Crown Gift Card

Maybe you have a little princess in need of a gift? :o)

Jill