Saturday, December 17, 2016

Christmas Holiday Blog Hop with Paper Sweeties



Welcome to Paper Sweeties Christmas Countdown!  Lots of fun and inspiration to be had.  Thank you for asking me to be a part of it, Debbie!


Check out the Paper Sweeties Blog for all the blog links and daily specials.  You'll be glad you did!

 

Homespun Holidays is one of my favorite stamp sets.  A few years ago, I made a cute shrinky-dink charm with the reindeer.  You can see it HERE.  (Ignore those blurry pictures!)

Homespun Holidays is absolutely perfect for creating a tag for this pretty plaid bag.


I picked up what I thought were plaid Christmas dish towels from Target.   When I got home, I saw they were marked "placemats".  I guess they could be used for either one.  It doesn't matter, I had another idea in mind, anyway!  

I folded it in half lengthwise and cut off a section with pinking shears.  Then I just sewed each side.  Quick and easy bag!   Fill it up and tie a bow around it.  And add that cute reindeer tag, of course!


Next up is this sweet little snow girl - isn't her outfit cute?  The background is batting that I had left over from some project long ago.  I love the sentiment:  You Melt My Heart.

Let's go check out the daily special at Paper Sweeties...




Sunday, December 11, 2016

It's All About the Smiles!



"You're doing the same thing you've always done:  bringing smiles - joy - to others.  Just in a different way."   A good friend told me that about seven years ago.  

Your body releases endorphins when you smile, (even a forced one!), which improves your mood and relieves stress.  

Well, you won't need three guesses to guess my mood this weekend while visiting Baby Louisa (aka Honey Girl).  I was drunk on smiles, hers and mine! 

I had quit teaching when my good friend (and mom of one of my first graders) gave me her sage advice.  Yes, she was trying to make me feel better when I told her that I felt like I was no longer doing anything important.  She did make me feel better, although I did roll my eyes at her!

I found myself thinking about her advice this weekend and although my creations are no comparison to Louisa, they still make me smile.   Blogging is a great way to give and receive smiles.  Who knew that through sharing, we are improving moods and relieving stress!

Thank you for sharing with me and letting me share with you!



You probably already know that this image with a sweet, happy girl and a cat (black!) is a smile magnet for me. 

And just in case your endorphins are spiking, I've got her as a download for you below.



I used my new sponge brayers on the background.  Also check out my new Woodware Snowflakes stamp.  The snowflakes are really pretty (and I have a very limited number of snowflake stamps available in my etsy store.)




Thank you so much to all of the lovely ladies who share their inspiration with us - talk about endorphins going crazy!  I so enjoyed every one of the three Visions of Sugarplums days.

Thank you, too, to all of you who shared the three days with all of us.  Hope you enjoyed a smile or two or three!   Maybe you still have Visions of Sugarplums dancing in your head!

And of course, a big thank you to all of the sponsors who so generously supported Visons of Sugarplums!

Winners:  Contact me by email ASAP to claim your prize.  You can click my email in the sidebar (lhairston@cox.net).  

Drumroll, please!  The Visions of Sugarplums 2016 winners are:


Scrappamondo:  The Cutting CafĂ© :   Orange You Cute Kit

Rebecca Yahrling:  Paper Sweeties:  $25 gift certificate

Jo Jo's Scrap Shack:Lawn Fawn:  $25 gift certificate

cm:  Pretty Pink Posh:  $25 gift certificate

Fiki:  The Funkie Junkie Boutique:  $25 worth of new Tim Holtz Christmas Idea-ology Products

Carol from LaCrosse:  Birch Press Design:  $20 gift certificate

Jennifer Scull:  The Twinery:  Sample Pack


Congratulations, winners (you're smiling, right?)!  Wish I could give everyone a prize!





 Download Winter Pals HERE.

Dropbox works differently for different people.  Either right click and save when image appears or click the download button in the top right corner.  If neither method works, email me and I'll send the files to you.



I want to take just a moment to share this card from Greta.  (There go those endorphins again!)  Thank you so much, Greta, for making me such an adorable baby card - it makes me smile!

Have a wonderful week and smile all you can (even if you have to occasionally force it)!



Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Visons of Sugarplums Day Three



Here we are - the last day of Visions of Sugarplums!  This has been so fun and what awesome projects from everyone.  Another merry Visions of Sugarplums!



Handmade rocking horses, vintage rocking horses, $9000 rocking horses - I love them all!  Thirty years ago, when Lauren was born, her grandpa made her a wooden rocking horse.  It lives in our library and it's waiting patiently for another little girl to get big enough to ride it.  
Yes, I said $9000!  Dennis put his foot down, however, so I don't have an amazing rocking horse from England.  

But, I do have this adorable rocking horse treat holder.  And you can, too!  I've got the pattern ready for you to download.  I know you'll love it as  much as I do.

You'll also love how easy it is to put together.  Seriously...watch how here:





It can't be Christmas without Gingerbread Men!  The shape of this one is adorable!  It's a die from Paper Sweeties - one of our sponsors - thank you, Debbie!  It comes with a lot of little cute accessories.  

Do you wonder how I got this gingerbread man to look like a cookie? You will find a couple of tricks in the video:





I found Gingerbread Man cookies at World Market.  The Cutting Cafe (thank you for sponsoring Visions of Sugarplums, Regina) had the perfect Gingerbread Man stamp set to create darling tags.  My favorite part of this stamp set is all the different faces and the cute sentiments.  

I used the same technique as above to create the gingerbread man.



I squealed when I came across a whole bunch of these gingerbread man cookie cutters!  You could hear me, right?  This is one of the Choux Box Christmas Kits.  I have a couple of the Christmas Kits in my etsy store.

Did you see that adorable gingerbread man tag?  They are available for you to download!


Let's give a final BIG THANK YOU to the Visions of Sugarplums sponsors:

Here are the awesome prizes you could win:

The Cutting CafĂ© :   Orange You Cute Kit
Paper Sweeties:  $25 gift certificate
Lawn Fawn:  $25 gift certificate
Pretty Pink Posh:  $25 gift certificate
The Funkie Junkie Boutique:  $25 worth of new Tim Holtz Christmas Idea-ology Products
Birch Press Design:  $20 gift certificate
The Twinery:  Sample Pack

How do you win?  

1.  Start by leaving a comment here that you would like to win. 
 
2.  Visit all the other blog's and leave comments.  

3.  I'll pick up your name from here, check all the other blogs and put your name in the "hat"  as many times as you leave comments.  Example:  Leave 14 comments = your name 14 times in the "hat".


My husband is the official "draw-the-names-out" guy.  Yes, we go old school here!  Winners will be announced Sunday, December 11th.



Link your project to the Visions of Sugarplums Challenge!  The prize is a $25.00 gift certificate to Freckled Fawn.  

Check out the Challenge HERE.


Download the Rocking Horse Pattern HERE.


Download the Gingerbread Man Tags HERE.

Dropbox works differently for different people.  Either right click and save when image appears or click the download button in the top right corner.  If neither method works, email me and I'll send the files to you.

We have once more chance to visit all these lovely ladies blogs and leave comments.  I'll see you there!




Check back Sunday for the winners and throughout December for more Christmas ideas.  Happy Visions of Sugarplums!



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