Personalized Drink Cups with a Friend

Hello friends.  Today I am going to share some fun, personalized drink mugs/cups that my friend Megan made for her female family members.  The women in Megan's family get together before Christmas for a girls only day of lunch and celebration.  Megan and her grandmother, mother, aunt, and cousins gathered last Sunday for their girl's day.  Megan contacted me last month and asked if I would help her personalize a few gifts for the ladies.

Megan purchased double-walled, shatter proof drink "jars" with colored lids.  She had a plan before meeting with to plan.  She knew she wanted her mom's and grandmother's cups to have a Christmas theme, her cousins to have fun designs with fun colors, and for her own and her aunt's mugs to have a University of South Carolina theme.  I am going to be honest here... The Michigan State Spartan in me had trouble with those Gamecock mugs!!  I kept thinking how much better they would look with Sparty on them!

It was fun watching Megan learn to manipulate the vinyl - - which became much easier once I introduced her to transfer tape!!

Megan liked the fun font I used for Maddie's mug so well that she asked if I could use the same font for her first initial too.  This font would be no fun to transfer without the transfer tape.

Oh the gamecocks - shudder!  I created a while frame for the bird so that he stood out a bit.

We added two layer USC initials to the side of Megan and Cindy's mugs....

And to their lids.

I think Megan had fun making the mugs.  She reported back that the mugs were a big hit at her girl's get together.  I am so happy that the other family members liked their mugs.  I thought Megan did a wonderful job of planning what she wanted, selecting colors, and applying the vinyl!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I will be back tomorrow with another Christmas themed post!!

Winter Wonderland Window View

Hello everyone.  The month of December is fully upon us and I am sure we are all beginning to feel the stress of up-coming holiday events.  I have a particularly busy week ahead, but I am quite looking forward to it.  I am expecting a visit from my mother, I am attending a cookie exchange on Thursday, a neighborhood party on Friday, and my Christmas Tea party is Sunday afternoon.  I see lots of baking and cleaning in my days ahead.  But I also plan to spent more time in my scrap room.  I find that time in my scrap room calms and renews me!

At Bitten by the Bug 2, we are offering you opportunities in the weeks ahead to join us in some pre-Christmas paper crafting de-stressing.  Please find time in the busy days ahead to join us in our weekly challenges and enjoy a little to yourself with crafting therapy!

Our BBTB2 challenge this week was selected by our sweet Design Team sister Sharon.  Sharon asked the DT to use any Cricut cartridge and create a project with the theme, "Winter is on the Way".  With that theme in mind, I decided to create a snowy window view of a winter wonderland!  I used only one cartridge and Cricut Craft Room to create this winter step card - Christmas (the Christmas cartridge was formerly known as Christmas Noel).

I have always liked this cartridge, it has a such a variety of delightful winter and Christmas images and I do like they way they can be combined to create festive and seasonal projects.

The main cuts I used on this card were the window (edited to combine two windows together), Santa and his sleigh, the village church, a homey cottage, and several trees. I added the cuts to the step card to create a village scene with Santa flying overhead.  

I created the window by welding two windows together.  I added an acetate sheet to the back of the window to create "glass".  I used liquid pearls covered with on the corners of the window panes to create a snowy look.

I added touches of white ink to the trees and Stickles to many of the card elements.  I gave the entire card a few shakes of white glitter to set off the sparkles.

I do hope that you take some "you time" this week and join our Winter is on the Way challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2.  Be sure to go by the blog for more wintery inspiration.

CLOSE TO MY HEART

Be sure to take a look at the adorable December Stamp of the Month, Special Care. The stamp set retails for $17.95, or with a $50 order the cartridge can be added to your cart during check out for only $5.00!

This, my friends, is outstanding time to join my team and become a Close to my Heart Consultant!!!

Until December 15, each new Consultant who enrolls with either the "Essentials" or "Master" New Consultant Kit may also receive a fun, brand-new product from the Spring/Summer 2014 Idea Book. To be eligible for the free product, the newConsultant must have $300 in sales by March 31, 2014.

What's the new product? It's the gorgeous new Picture My Life™ scrapbooking program. There are 8 fresh and stunning design themes to choose from, each one featuring 122 double-sided, designed cards in a mix of 3" x 4" and 4" x 6", plus a 12"x12" cover page to bring your album together beautifully. You also get 10 Memory Protectors™ with new formats designed just for this program and lots of your photos. It's a retail value of $24.95 but it’s FREE to qualifying new Consultants!

More details and photos will be available soon of the new "Picture My Life" scrapbooking program.

You can start earning the "Picture My Life"  program FREE right now when you sign up. When you, as a new Consultant, order the Essentials Kit and qualify for the offer, you will not only receive more than $180 in products and supplies, plus commission on your sales, (all for only $49) you will also add to that the perks of Straight To The Top, and a new Idea Book that will be coming out in January that will be loaded with great new products to introduce to your customers!  

Learn more here and here!

Gingerbread House Gift Bag

Hello friends! Today I have another of the gift bags I crafted on Thursday to share with you.  This bag features a cut Gingerbread house - or at least it would have had I used more traditional papers.  But you know me, I find doing the expected thing a bit of a challenge! Ha.

I used the same SVGCuts.com file for this bag that I used for yesterday's soldiers.  This bag is the same size as the soldier bag.  I hope one of the girls - with my daughter or my son's fiance - will like this bag.

I am sharing a few more Christmas decorations today.  This antique cabinet stands nearly seven feet tall and is several feet wide.  I placed the tall narrow tree next to the cabinet, which we call our "bar" in an attempt to "festive up" the area.  (This was my office tree when I still worked outside of the home).

We have a collection of different Santa figurines and I placed 14-15 of the Santa figures on the shelves.  There are a couple of more Jim Shore Santa figurines on the entry way table also.

Thanks for popping by today.  I will be back on Monday with a new BBTB2 project.  Enjoy your weekend!!

CLOSE TO MY HEART

Yesterday was December 1st and I should have shared the December Stamp of the Month, Special Care, with you.  Fortunately you have all month to add this stamp set to your stamp collection!  The stamp set retails for $17.95, or with a $50 order the cartridge can be added to your cart during check out for only $5.00!

This, my friends, is outstanding time to join my team and become a Close to my Heart Consultant!!!

Until December 15, each new Consultant who enrolls with either the "Essentials" or "Master" New Consultant Kit may also receive a fun, brand-new product from the Spring/Summer 2014 Idea Book. To be eligible for the free product, the newConsultant must have $300 in sales by March 31, 2014.

What's the new product? It's the gorgeous new Picture My Life™ scrapbooking program. There are 8 fresh and stunning design themes to choose from, each one featuring 122 double-sided, designed cards in a mix of 3" x 4" and 4" x 6", plus a 12"x12" cover page to bring your album together beautifully. You also get 10 Memory Protectors™ with new formats designed just for this program and lots of your photos. It's a retail value of $24.95 but it’s FREE to qualifying new Consultants!

More details and photos will be available soon of the new "Picture My Life" scrapbooking program.

You can start earning the "Picture My Life"  program FREE right now when you sign up. When you, as a new Consultant, order the Essentials Kit and qualify for the offer, you will not only receive more than $180 in products and supplies, plus commission on your sales, (all for only $49) you will also add to that the perks of Straight To The Top, and a new Idea Book that will be coming out in January that will be loaded with great new products to introduce to your customers!  

Learn more here and here!

Christmas Soldiers on Parade

Hello friends!  I had quite the busy crafting day yesterday.  Two of my friends stopped by for assistance with Christmas projects they were crafting (I will share photos of one of those projects next week) and I was working on Christmas gift boxes/bags for my family's gifts.

Made several different gift containers yesterday, but this soldier gift bag was by far my favorite.  I guess I am just a sucker for a guy in a uniform! Ha.

I used a cut file from SVGCuts.com to create this gift bag -  the file is called Big Christmas Bags and is available for purchase from SVGcuts.com.  I cut the file with my Cameo at the full size of the cut file.  The finished bag measures 10.5 inches wide, 10 inches tall, and 4.25 inches deep.  This is truly a nice big gift bag.  I will add that the bag assembles easily with just a little glue and scoring.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I will be sharing more of my gift containers in the coming week, as well as sharing one of the gift sets I helped a friend craft.  She had such a good idea!  I am going to wrap up (no pun intended) today with a photo of nutcrackers.  I added white lights to the shelves and I really like how the lights brightened the area.

Christmas Gift Box

Hello everyone!  I hope all of you had a lovely Thanksgiving and weekend.  We were especially thankful for friends and family and had a wonderful time with both.  Local friends included us in their Thanksgiving day plans, we hosted a friend and her children for Thanksgiving evening dessert and fun, and on Friday, our boys came home.  Our family did a "three-fer" celebration Saturday night at Buca di Beppo, celebrating Thanksgiving, our 32nd anniversary, and Ian's 23rd birthday!

But do not worry, even with all of the friend and family time, I did not forget about Bitten by the Bug 2 this week. In fact, I am hosting this week's challenge.  I asked the Design Team to create a Christmas gift box or bag using any Cricut cartridge.  I am hoping that BBTB2 might inspire you to create more homemade gift containers, tags, etc for this year's gift giving.

I created a gift bag that coordinates nicely with last Monday's Christmas card.  I used the same "wreath like cut" for the front of the box as I used on the card.   I used three Cricut cartridges to create my gift bag:  Paper Trimmings, Artiste, and Art Philosophy.

I cut the basic box using the Artiste cartridge.  I did weld an oval over the scalloped closure flap to create a smooth edge.   I used the Paper Trimmings cartridge to cut the wreath.  And I used Art Philosophy to cut the double layer flowers.  The flowers were stamped with a stamp which came with the Art Philosophy cartridge.  The greeting on the front of the wreath is a CTMH stamp from my stash.

I used my last sheet of 12 x 17 inch Christmas print card stock (from Darcie's) to created this box, which was cut at 11 inches tall and 14.5 inches wide, side ways on the 12 x 24 inch mat.  I welded an oval over the scallop-edged flap, making the box 11.5 inches tall.

The poinsettia's were cut at 1.5 inches and stamped with Ruby ink.  Three of the flowers were hand trimmed around the ink and then layered with pop dots.  Gold gems were added as flower centers.
 

Using Art Philosophy I cut a coordinating to/from cart and attached it to the gift bag using CTMH red and white twine.  I added sticky Velcro to the closer flap and the front of the box to secure the closure.  

I hope to create additional gift boxes in the coming two weeks as I wrap gift and place them under the tree. I hope that you choose to join us this week at Bitten by the Bug 2 and create gift boxes/bags of your own to use this Christmas.  I love the special touch that homemade gift containers and tags add to the gifting experience!

Thanks for stopping by today.

CLOSE TO MY HEART

Yesterday was December 1st and I should have shared the December Stamp of the Month, Special Care, with you.  Fortunately you have all month to add this stamp set to your stamp collection!  The stamp set retails for $17.95, or with a $50 order the cartridge can be added to your cart during check out for only $5.00!

This, my friends, is outstanding time to join my team and become a Close to my Heart Consultant!!!

Until December 15, each new Consultant who enrolls with either the "Essentials" or "Master" New Consultant Kit may also receive a fun, brand-new product from the Spring/Summer 2014 Idea Book. To be eligible for the free product, the new Consultant must have $300 in sales by March 31, 2014.

What's the new product? It's the gorgeous new Picture My Life™ scrapbooking program. There are 8 fresh and stunning design themes to choose from, each one featuring 122 double-sided, designed cards in a mix of 3" x 4" and 4" x 6", plus a 12"x12" cover page to bring your album together beautifully. You also get 10 Memory Protectors™ with new formats designed just for this program and lots of your photos. It's a retail value of $24.95 but it’s FREE to qualifying new Consultants!

More details and photos will be available soon of the new "Picture My Life" scrapbooking program.

You can start earning the "Picture My Life"  program FREE right now when you sign up. When you, as a new Consultant, order the Essentials Kit and qualify for the offer, you will not only receive more than $180 in products and supplies, plus commission on your sales, (all for only $49) you will also add to that the perks of Straight To The Top, and a new Idea Book that will be coming out in January that will be loaded with great new products to introduce to your customers!  

Learn more here and here!