HO HO HO WALL DECOR

Good morning Stampers!!! WOW!! Another VERY busy week and weekend as I had five events that I had to prep and teach! It was a whole lot of fun though!!! One of my really big events for the holiday season was this past Saturday when I held my annual Santa's Workshop where we did four great holiday gifts!! We had a BLAST!!! The ladies loved the projects, which of course made ME happy, and I was thrilled to see them enjoying the day! Lots of laughing, holiday snacks, and delicious hot cider! I have the BEST friends - thanks to my good friend Shelly who owns a local nursery in the area, we had a wonderful space to hold our class - it was soooo much fun!!! I want to share the projects with you this week starting with the HO HO HO wall hanging we made! This is sooo super cute and I have mine already hung up with the rest of my Christmas decorations, lol! It was hard to get a good picture of the whole thing so I did the best I could - I will share with you each square separately so you can see how we put this together! We used lots of fun and festive holiday products so everyone got to play and explore fun options! The three squares are made of chipboard and then covered with Letters to Santa Designer series paper, both of which were cut on the Big Shot using the Scallop Square die. We attached all three squares to some Cherry Cobbler wide grosgrain ribbon, making a looped handle at the top, which is secured with an antique brad with a pretty snowflake on top. The snowflake was made using our fabulous silver glitter paper and the Snowflake punch (I will say that punching out the silver glimmer paper with a punch was a challenge - you need to do it slowly and definitely one at a time, but totally worth it as you can see!)

Here is the first square! Sorry for the pic being a bit blurry - I don't know what is wrong with my picture taking abilities lately :-(  Each one of the squares has a solid Old Olive square that is cut out using the Square Die for the Big Shot, rounding the corners with the Corner Rounder punch. We then stamped on this square in Cherry Cobbler ink with the fun stamp set called Merry and Type. Such a cute stamp set, love it! The letters were cut out using the Serif Essentials large letter dies for the Big Shot, using both Chipboard and the Silver Glitter paper. It gives the whole hanging a wonderful dimensional look without adding a ton of bulk to it. I did not want it to be too heavy as it does need to hang up and then fold away nicely to be used again and again! That pretty felt wreath is from our Felt Flurries pack that can be found in the Holiday mini - you get a lot of bang for your buck with this package since you get sooo many of each fun little holiday embellishment!

This is the second square on the hanging, which as the same solid square as the first one, along with the same letters for the sentiment! The stamp set that we used on this one is called Snow Much Fun and I have to say I thoroughly enjoy stamping with this fun set - the two snowman images totally make me smile! There is a short, fat snowman in this set as well, and the sentiments are just as cute as can be! For this square, we used the tall snowman and his birdie friends as well as the little snowball with the birdie on it - aren't they adorable?? They are both stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink as well. The holly leaves and the sweet little mittens are more of the cute felt flurries embellishments from the package - those mittens are just sooooo stinkin' cute! They actually come attached with a piece of string between them, just like we all had when we were little, lol! We just cut them off for this project, but they look just as cute strung together!

This is the third and final square on the hanging, again with the same solid square and the pretty lettering. The stamp is from the Merry and Type stamp set and is actually a pretty large stamp - we could not even get the whole stamp on here, cutting off some of the strings hanging down with the ornaments! I love this stamp, I think it is bold and really catches the eye! It is also stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink. We used even more of the felt flurries embellishments, adding in the really fun snowflake this time - I just love these!!! This was such a fun project to put together, and many of the ladies who attended told me this was their favorite of the four that we did! I have to say, I had a ton of fun designing this one too :-) If you would like to order any of the products you see here, you can order them in my online store or you can contact me directly, and I would be happy to place your order for you! Or, if you would like to book a workshop and make your very own fun projects with your friends, contact me and let's get you all set up! Now I am off to finish prepping for my fun workshop later on this afternoon - I hope all of you can find time to stamp in this busy time of year, I believe it is so good for the soul, and much cheaper than paying for therapy, lol!! Have a wonderful day, and I will be back tomorrow to share some super cute tree ornament gift card holders!

Wall Hanging Recipe:

Paper - Old Olive card stock, Letters to Santa Designer Series paper, Silver Glitter paper

Inks - Cherry Cobbler classic ink

Stamps - Merry and Type, Snow Much Fun

Tools - Big Shot, Serif Essentials Large Letter Dies, Scallop Square Die, Square Die, Sticky Tape

Accessories - Cherry Cobbler wide grosgrain ribbon, Felt Flurries embellishments

TIME FOR THE CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN!

Happy Hump Day stampers!!! Yes, I know it has been awhile, but I had some personal family health issues to focus on as my family is always my priority! Although we still are dealing with what lies ahead, and know it is going to be a VERY long and bumpy road, we are going to walk it together!!! So, I though it was time to get back into some semblance of a normal routine (do we EVER have that??) and share something crafty!! I want to share with you the Christmas Advent Wreath I made and then turned into a class - I did three sessions and each session was really fun!! And, we all left with a great decoration too!  I did all the cutting and the sticky tape ahead of time so they could put it together and decorate it - the fun parts, lol! We started out with a flat wooden circle that I ordered from an online supply store as I wanted the wreath to have a really sturdy base. We wrapped that in Cherry Cobbler wide striped ribbon, leaving enough to make the hanger you see in the picture. So, from the back side, you don't see ugly wood, you see pretty ribbon :-) We then cut out a circle that fit the back side of wreath - we used the cardboard from the paper packs since you can't see it. Then, we covered that with the Cherry Cobbler card stock circle you see in the center - both are attached using hot glue since we never want it to come off, lol!!  The 24 boxes you see are made with the matchbox die for the Big Shot and the base is made of Cherry Cobbler card stock to ensure they are nice and sturdy for many years to come! The lids are made of patterned paper from the Letters to Santa Designer Series paper pack - such beautiful paper!! The bottom twelve boxes are sticky taped to the circle first, creating the base for the top ones. They are placed out diagonally around the circle in order to keep the circle shape since as you go around the circle, the angles change quite a bit - this was tricky, but everyone got it :-) The top boxes then were staggered in between every two of the top boxes, creating that awesome wreath look! Each of the top boxes have an Old Olive Ornament that was punched out with the Ornament punch and adhered to the box. The numbers on the box were cut out using the Medium Sizzlets alphabet for the Big Shot, and were cut using the Silver Glimmer Paper - looks amazing, all sparkly!!! Then, the ornaments were each adorned with tiny bows using some of the yummy Cherry Cobbler Quilted ribbon.  The numbers for the bottom boxes are on the inside of the wreath and correspond with each box, making sure 13 started to the right of box 12, keeping the sequence going. In the very center of the wreath, there is a Scalloped Circle of the Letters to Santa DSP that was cut on the Big Shot. A Whisper White circle was also die cut and nested in the center after it was stamped using the Christmas Postcard A la Carte stamp. It was stamped in Stazon, then colored in with Stampin' Write markers. For some fun accents, we added a snowflake and some of the holly leaves out of the super cute Stitched Felt package you can find in the Holiday Mini, along with the Holly Berry Bunch button we used in the center of the snowflake! To finish it off, we put Rhinestones on every other scallop, and added some Dazzling Details to the stamped image, making the whole project sparkle!! Everyone loved how it turned out - including me!! I am thrilled with this wreath and can't wait to start using it tomorrow :-)

Here are some closer shots of the wreath as well as showing how the drawers open to put the treat inside!  I hope you enjoyed seeing this as much as I enjoyed designing it! I think made from the heart decor is the best kind, don't you?? I have made several home decor items this year that I will share with you over the next few weeks as we count down the days until Santa comes!! Christmas is my very favorite time of year, and I am so very excited as my oldest son will be coming home for the holidays as he transfers to Southern California for his first Marine Corps duty station. Yes, my baby is all grown up!! I still can't wait to hug his neck though, lol!!! I will be back tomorrow with some other super fun and cute projects to share, but until then, take some time to be creative, it makes for a better day!!  Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Wreath Recipe:
Paper -  Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Whisper White cardstock, Letters to Santa Designer Series paper, Silver Glimmer Paper
Inks - Black Stazon, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Marina Mist, River Rock Stampin' Write markers
Stamps - Christmas Postcard
Tools - Medium Sizzlets Alphabet, Scalloped Circle die, Clear Circle die, Matchbox die, Big Shot,  Ornament Punch, Sticky Tape, hot glue gun
Accessories - Basic Rhinestones, Cherry Cobbler Wide Striped Ribbon and Quilted Ribbon, Stitched Felt, Hollyberry buttons, Dazzling Details