3 days until Christmas - are you ready?

I'm happy to report that this year, I almost am.

Almost.

I still have a few last minute things to do...some shopping, a little food prep and some house cleaning. BUT, my wrapping is finished! YES! I said my wrapping is finished! I know!!! I'm surprised, too!

This is the very first year I can say that all of my wrapping is done before Christmas Eve!

I've been trying to get things wrapped as I buy them...and it's kinda working. I have a little station set up in my family room...all the wrapping paper in one spot and all of my awesome Heidi Swapp bits and pieces in another.

Wanna see some of the packages I created?

Here...I'll show you...




I love the look of Kraft paper on almost everything! Especially when it's paired with elegant patterns and colors. For this little tag, I simply attached a "To: / From:" sticker, a few stickers (mistletoe & a bow) and a little piece of color-blocked wood veneer.


...and finally, a few more snowflakes in teal foil.

I'm really happy that I was able to keep up with my gift-wrapping this year...let's hope it's something that becomes a habit as the years go on!

Thank you so much for being here today...I'm so grateful to everybody that takes a minute out of their schedules to visit and to see what I've been working on.

Merry Merry Christmas...and a very Happy New Year!

SUPPLIES: All items (except wrapping paper and ribbon) used in this post can be found at select Joann Stores

Every year my sisters-in-law and I meet near my house for 2 days of fun with all of our kids. We usually hit a water park one day and then either a children's museum or the zoo for the other day. We meet kind of near my house so my kids and I come home for the night, while the other girls and their kids spend the night in a hotel.

This year, however, my sisters-in-law and the cousins will be staying with us overnight (yay!). We rarely see each other, so I'm really looking forward to hanging out with them on Wednesday night...

Now, whenever we have guests, I like to give them a little something to let them know how grateful we are for them...and this time is no different.

Last week, Bath & Body Works had a huge sale on soap, so I loaded up...I bought 14. Yes, I said 14. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this photo...


So...guess who's getting soap as a part of their gift this week?

Here are the two soaps I started with...


I just set them in a little paper treat bag (from Pick Your Plum), designed and cut a little tag with my Silhouette, and I was done...


Nothing spectacular, but hopefully the girls will like 'em...


Tomorrow I will share the recipe for the amazing cookies I made for the second part of their house guest gifts...yum.


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Hope you all had a great weekend!

Only 2 weeks before my kids head back to school! Woo hoo! I will miss them, but, I gotta tell ya, I won't miss the summer messes or fighting...uh uh...not at all...

Lifestyle Crafts has done it again!



Their Fall Core Collection (debuting at the CHA trade show this week!) is not to be missed! Just check out some of the amazing dies that will be available for purchase over the next few months...

Lifestyle Crafts sent me a few of these dies (the business card holder & the ticket punches) to try out and I'm so excited to share my projects with you!

First off...here is what the dies look like...I'm always amazed by these, especially the box dies. It's so cool how a flat sheet of paper can make the neatest boxes!


Here are the business card holder dies...not only do you get the holder, you get a die for the card that fits inside, too! So cool!!!


And these are the dies for the tickets...single ticket dies are included, too!

I really love the business card holder because I think it's an absolute must-have. Not only can you use it to glam-up your business cards, you can also use it for gift cards, gift packaging, and scrapbooking! Here's what I did with mine...


What?  You can't see the little envelopes??? That's because they're hiding...


See 'em now? Yep...tucked right into that little folder...cool huh?



Here's one close-up...


I used some of my amazing Canvas Corp chevron stripe paper for this one...seriously adorable.


And I used some of my Lifestyle Crafts Tab It dies to add tabs to the card holders...

I already have big plans for this die and Christmas gifts...(smile).

With my ticket punches I wanted to think outside the box a little bit...

I have had this artwork hanging on the wall at the bottom of my family room stairs forever...


I really liked it, but it was getting old. So I grabbed some scrapbook paper and went to work to create something new.

I know I'm probably months behind, but I'm kinda diggin' the ombre look right now, and I'm totally into bright yellow this summer...so I chose my paper accordingly.

I cut out strips of paper with the ticket punches...the one with the circles cuts little perforations between the tickets, so all of the tickets remain together...awesome.

I originally shared this project with the adorable Katie at Sew Woodsy during her 12 Days of Handmade Ornaments party...these really don't take much time to make, but they can take your gift wrapped package from great to fantastic...




I got the inspiration for my ornaments when I was taking out my Christmas decor...I came across some old ornaments that the kids had made in preschool...you know the kind...the teacher takes one of the kids' school photos and puts it in as the face of a snowman or reindeer or something equally cute?

Well, I thought it would be neat to do sort-of the same thing...minus the snowman or reindeer or something equally cute...

I started searching through my photos and came across a couple of cute ones I wanted to use...specifically one of my niece, Ellie, at Thanksgiving, & one of my nephew, Grahm, last summer...I popped these into Photoshop and...

With Ellie's ornament, I frayed the edges a little to it a more whimsical look...then I used a random zigzag stitch - twice - around the photo & added a little gem to the flower on her headband...

The burlap I used on the back provided a nice heavy base for the photo...it makes the whole thing feel a bit more substantial...







Then I thought it would be fun to just use my sister- and brother-in-law's last name...I printed out the year in this awesome font and then filled in the empty circles with little brown rhinestones...the houndstooth print is 2 layers of decorator-weight fabric...

Don't have a sewing machine? You can try hand-stitching or even hot glue!

The possibilites are endless with these little beauties...truly. I think I'm going to use these ornaments as the tags on the pictured person's gift...wouldn't that be fun? To get a gift with your photo on it instead of just a plain old "to: from:?" Ooooh, I would love that...