What Will You Be Doing on New Year's Day

My wish for all my family and friends is.........

That all the strife of 2011 is forgotten like a bad dream.  In it's place is a light heart that takes things as they come with a childlike spirit.

 Here's to 2012 being a joyfully wild ride with us laughing all the way!!!

Love and Good Wishes...Tracy :)

Be Back Soon

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that we haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  We've been sharing a wonderful viral infection, with all the usual cold symptoms, fever, chills, headaches (oh the headaches), body/muscle aches, and no stop coughing.  Add to that sinusitis.   Today is my 5 straight day in bed with no end in sight.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

My 2nd Batch of Homemade Christmas Cards

This is the 2nd batch of Christmas cards I made and sent out just barely in the nick of time.  Simple steps to a cute card.

First gather the items you need or at least what you know you might need.  I started with my broken acrylic cutting board (hey Santa, I could use a new one).  Basic blue cards that sold at Michaels for only $1.00, I bought them after Christmas last year for about 25 cents.  Red card stock and cute little printed Mary Engelbreit images printed on the computer. Decorative cutting scissors and glue dot tape. 

*Money saving tip*  To save money on printer ink, I take my images on paper or flash drive to Staples and have them print them.  I was able to get 6 or 8 on a page for $1.00.  You can ask them to print them from your flash drive.  When using a lot of ink for bold images like this it is cheaper.

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Using the dot tape I just put the image on the card stock and trimmed with the decorative scissors.

After adding it to the front I added some of the red velvet decorating ribbon to the inside of the front and just trimmed the tails.  I didn't photograph the inside but used a simple Merry Christmas stamp in red ink.


Hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Remember to take time between the rush of the season to relax so you can enjoy every moment of the joy Christmas brings with your families. XO'...Tracy :)

Christmas Cards Are Finished and On Their Way

There's nothing like receiving your Christmas card the day before Christmas.  Not!  But that's exactly when my family and a few friends will be receiving theirs.

Barely done and finally mailed on Tuesday.  It's been an up and down few months for us so time was short and it seemed to fly by fast.  I saw this design somewhere and copy-catted it for myself.

I just cut a some tree shapes out of card stock and glued two together for extra strength.  And then wrap them in yarn.  I used what I had on hand.  Lucky  I had the variegated green yarn, brown for the trunk and I even found this cute yarn with balls on it, which made perfect garland.

I covered up the ribbon on the back of the cards with these punched circles.

There you go 7 cards that were pretty easy.  Warning though.  These were not cheap to mail so keep that in mind if when making your cards.  Tomorrow I'll show you the second design I made.

Style and Soul's 2012 Welcome Giveaway!

 Style and Soul is having a big giveaway.  Big enough for not just one winner but 2.  Stop by Style and Soul here to see what Melai is giving her winners and enter for your own chance to win. visit 2012 Welcome Giveaway! 

Good Luck!

 

Last minute Christmas Gift - Sew Easy

Are you looking for a last minute Christmas gift?  Have you always wished you could crochet or knit a scarf but can't?  Well I have just the thing for you.

I made this for my Granddaughter and didn't even have to knit a lick.  It wasn't a last minute creation for me but if your looking for a fast, while you watch T.V. craft, here you go.

I found this simple tutorial over at Love Affair With My Brother.  Sunni gives you step by step instructions and shows you the cute one that she made for a cute little girl, which I copy catted for Ki'a.  She made several grown up ones in a beautiful white for example, for her girlfriends.  Be sure a stop by and take a peek here.

Thanks to Old Saint Nick for modeling mine.  You can visit Sunni here to see her step-by-step tutorial.  Tell her I said hi.

I Know Someone Who Will Have Warmly Yours Tootsies

Thanks to all of you who entered the Warmly Yours rug giveaway.  Your entries and comments are what drive sponsors to continue to offer these great products on my blog.  And I'm so happy that I could share this one with you because I L.O.V.E. my warm rug!!!  It's so nice to sit at my desk barefoot, like I always am and have my feet toasty warm.  If you weren't the winner this time, I highly suggest you go by and check out Warmly Yours yourself by clicking here.  It's definitely worth the money.  I wish I would have had this when I worked in the business world, where my office was always freezing.


Now to announce the winner.........
Congratulations Kate @ Auntie Kates!!!!!  Your the lucky winner and I've already emailed you. 

Warmly Yours Giveaway - Very Low Entries - Less Than 30 Ends Tonight

Your feet don't have to be cold.  That is, if you enter my Warmly Yours heated rug giveaway. 

This is the perfect under the desk rug to keep your tootsies warm.  Just click here to enter.  Remember no entries on this post will count.  You must go to the giveaway page by clicking the photo are the above link.

There are less than 30 entries so your odds of winning are awesome!

Hurry There's a Stamp Giveaway @ Heather's Hobbie Haven

There's a giveaway that's ending soon and I thought you might want to know about it.

Isn't this the sweetest stamp.   Heather at Heather's Hobby Haven is giving this to one lucky winner. As Heather says "coloring isn't just for kids".


I've have been having the strongest urge to want to color, but with markers instead of crayons.  I spend way too much time just stalking out beautiful colored cards and crafts.  I wish Santa would bring me a set of copic markers this year.  Just sayin....


Click here to go enter Heathers giveaway or on the picture above, but hurry it ends today Dec 17th.

Spreading the Joy of Christmas - Last Day of Giveaway Reminder

There hasn't been nearly enough time for Christmas crafting this year but earlier this week I did get the cutest little garland made.  I found the inspiration in the Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.

It's super easy and I really did have fun making it.  My biggest challenge when working with papers is coordinating all the incredible colors and designs.  Especially when I'm looking through a huge mixed stack of paper I have, and not shopping from scratch.

 

I think I did a pretty good job but I'm always amazed by what everyone else comes up with.  I think the "Y" is my favorite.

 

 I used my cricut to cute the circles and I made the accordian folds by hand.  Instead of making the tags from scratch.  I used ones I already had and just cover them with scrapbooking paper and cute them down.  I used cricut to cut my letters too.  I'm so glad I got it last year.  I really want to find time to use it a lot more this year.

 I forgot to string the jingles bells in between the letters before taking the pictures.  In fact, I just now realized it while posting these pictures.  Well that's an easy fix since nothings permanent here.

I found out that as simple as fan/accordian folding is, I don't like doing it when there's a simpler way.  I went to Joanns craft store with my 40% off coupon and picked up this Martha Stewart Score Board and couldn't be happier with it.  The right tools make all the difference. (This is not a product review, just a product I like and wanted to share).

 

 So what's your biggest challenge when crafting or decorating?

P.S.  Don't forget to enter my Warmly Yours heated rug giveaway. Today's the last day!

Thanks to all the great hostess' in blog land, I'm linking up to the parties below.  Just click on the photos to visit them.  So many creative ideas ~ so little time....

Funky Junk Interiors
Show and Tell Saturday @ Be Different, Act Normal 
Sunday Showcase Party @ By Stephanie Lynn
Sundae Scoop Weekend Wrap Up Party @ I love Nap Time 
Before and After Party @ Thrifty Decor Chick'
Make the Scene Monday @ Alderberry Hill