Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's just a few holiday cards to share with you this Christmas Day. I hope that everyone enjoys their day surrounded by family and friends! Cheers and Happy New Year!

Let It Snow! 

Christmas Wreath with Rhinestones and Staple Embellishments

Traditional Merry Christmas

Snowflake Punch

Merry and Joy

Seattle Christmas

Every year I buy new Christmas stamps and supplies. This stamp, bought almost 10 years ago, continues to be my favorite!

(it's been awhile, but I'm back into craft mode!......)

Trick or Treat!

These cupcake toppers are easy to make and are adorable! I started by googling image search  "halloween cupcake toppers" and came across this free printable. I added my own touch by using a circle punch to just cut the image, and a scalloped circle punch for the accent color. I used hot glue in between two scallop punches to insert the toothpick.  3D dots were used to adhere the image and to add some depth to the final product. 

The cupcakes I made were pumpkin spice, with vanilla pumpkin spice frosting! Yummmmmm.....

DIY Home Decor Balls & Box

This is a quick and easy decorating tip. DIY home decor balls are simple to make and only require a few supplies.... hot glue, any kind of rope, yarn, or string (preferably thicker), and a sphere of some sort (styrofoam ball, wiffle ball, etc...).

First step is to start at any point with a dab of hot glue and circle the string around the center point, gluing as you are winding the string around and continue until the whole ball is covered. 

Ta da! Simple and cute!

After seeing all these decor ball tutorials on line, I thought why not decorate a box? Any size box can be used applying the same method as the balls, outcome: you get a cool piece of DIY art. I used twine on the box, it was a little time consuming but it was totally worth the finished product! 

I placed my new decor on top of my entertainment center and paired it next to a bottle of Chianti saved from my birthday last year. 

I am trying to get back into the groove of crafting, but I promise... more projects coming soon! 

It's May ALREADY? Updates!

I can't believe it's already the end of May! Where has twenty eleven gone?! It's been months MONTHS since my last update, and even longer since I actually posted something to do with crafting! Thought I'd fill you in on what I have been doing and how my trip to India was...

As I mentioned in my last post I am an opening team trainer for California Pizza Kitchen. In January I was in Boston, and then late February I got the chance to do an international opening in Mumbai, India! It was an amazing experience and I am very grateful that I was given the opportunity to experience such an amazing country!

On our morning walk, or anytime of the day actually, wild cows would be roaming the streets of the city. 

This is the biggest tourist attraction in Mumbai. The Taj Hotel and the Gateway of India. Behind the Taj Hotel the streets are lined with tons of street vendors and markets, lots of shopping! 

One of the last days I was there, I got a traditional mehndi (henna) on my left arm. It is typically done for holidays, celebrations, and for weddings. Before the wedding the bride gets both of her hands and arms (up to the elbow) and both feet and legs (up to the knee) done. The groom also get some done to match.

I was the bartender trainer at this opening. This picture is of my bartender trainees and I after a day of training and making some delicious drinks! I had an awesome time training them, and they taught me so much about their culture and city! 

Here it is! The second location in Mumbai, India! After working VERY long days, trying to function off of very little sleep, and adapting to the culture shock.... opening day opened as scheduled and was a success! 

I h.e.a.r.t. Seattle! 

(The Space Needle is barely visible on the top right side.)

I was SOOO happy to touch ground in Seattle after being gone for a month (again!) and enduring a 16 hour flight from India to Newark, a 5 hour layover and then a lovely 5 hour flight from Newark to Seattle! The first thing I did was drive straight to McDonalds and get a juicy cheeseburger, I had MAJOR withdrawals! 

Now that I've actually paid a little attention to my blog and have updated it... Now it's time to CRAFT! I have a lot of projects in the works and even more brewing up my mind! 

Stay tuned.....

Update On Where I've Been

This past month I spent living in Boston, MA. I had the opportunity to travel for work as an Opening Team Trainer for California Pizza Kitchen. I truly missed my blog and working anywhere from 12 to 20 hours a day, there was no time left for crafting! I am home for only two weeks and hope to complete a couple of projects. I am leaving again for another store opening in Mumbai, India!

I'd love to share a couple of things from my trip!

This was taken from the top of The Prudential Center, Fenway Park is in the top right corner. 

The Front Of The House training team. 

The night before a huge snow storm was going to hit...

The morning after. It snows WAY too much there! 

Couple of new slang words that I learned about also....

Instead of calling them small bottles, or airplane shots.... they call them "nips"?!

..."wicked" is used more than it probably should be.

They also call a water fountain a "bubbler". 

The liquor store is considered to be "The Package Store" because they put your liquor into a brown package bag, they also call it "The Packie". 

Can't wait to share with you what I learn in INDIA! 

Holiday Cards

Here are a few holiday cards that I made.

One stamp was used to create three different designs...

Items used:

Green card stock, yellow card stock, red staples, rhinestones, HAPPY HOLIDAYS stamp, and 3D dots.

THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE! I HEART SEATTLE!

Items used:

Black embossing powder, green glitter glue, red dot embellishments, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS stamp.

Items used:

Blue card stock, circle punch, snowflake punch, snowflake stamp,blue rhinestones, 3D dots, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS stamp

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas! :)

Oh Christmas Tree(s)!

Wow! Christmas tree cones are EVERYWHERE! I have seen so many different styles this year of these trees... using twine, gumdrops, ribbon, feathers, pearls, flowers, buttons, etc. 

Mine are simple and a bit less complicated... I just used speciality paper (and by special I mean expensive!) You can't really see it in the pictures but the print of the paper is textured. I used three different sized styrofoam cones and cut strips of paper 1 inch wide by 1 1/2 inch in length, used "pinking"scissors at the end of each strip and used hot glue to adhere the strips starting from the base up. 

*(to get the paper to flip I slightly curled them using a pen.)

Embellishments were simple... flowers, buttons, and rhinestones. I used flower wire to attach the embellishment at the top of each tree. This picture shows a better detailed view of why I used the pinking scissors. 

The large tree used two pieces of 12x12 paper, and the two smaller trees used one 12x12 each. 

DIY Ribbon Bag

Remember the post I Heart Ribbon... 

and the crazy amount of ribbon I have? 

Over the weekend of black friday I kept seeing ribbon bags on sale.

They were priced anywhere from $15 - $30. I thought to myself that is a lot of money for a plastic bag with holes in it...

I remembered that I had this bag in my closet from awhile ago when I bought some bedding and figured it would be the perfect size for my new ribbon bag!

I used my cropadile (aka... the best tool EVER) and punch holes all throughout the bag. I wound each ribbon around  my fingers before inserting a small strip through the holes, that way it's not going to get tangled with all the other ribbons and when you need to use your ribbon you just select and pull! 

Some holiday cards are in the works and will be posted in the next week.... hope you are excited to see them! 

Giving Thanks

As Thanksgiving is quickly approaching I have been procrastinating with my holiday project for this month. This past weekend gave me a little inspiration to get this post done. 

I put together a quick "give thanks" sign. I had the two chip boards for a book I never gotten around to. I set up my layout first to get an idea of how it would look.

I used mod podge to get a glossy look for the printed paper I used as the background. The cardboard letters were spray painted with a soft cream color. Once those steps were done I hot glue gunned the letters and embellished as shown using ribbon, buttons, flowers, metal letters, jewels, etc. 

_______________________________________

My mom and I went this past Saturday to volunteer for Operation Support Our Troops Northwest. This Christmas pack out had over 150 volunteers and we stuffed over 3,200 stockings to be sent out to troops to arrive in time for Christmas. The pack out was featured on our local news channel here  is the short video clip.

Home of the Free Because of the Brave...

God Bless Our Troops.

Weekend In Whistler

This past weekend 13 of my closest girlfriends traveled up north to Whistler, Canada to celebrate Nicole's 25th Birthday (welcome to the club little!). These pictures can't even capture the amount of fun that was had! Just a few highlights to share with you.... 

Remember when I told you I was possibly going to be obsessed with etching? Well it's official. I made these beer steins for all the girls with their name etched and a tag. My tutorial on etching can be found here.

Lindsey and Michelle. Cheers! 

Kelly, Me, Teagen and Nicole during a game of catch phrase!

Erika and Lo breaking it off on the dance floor. 

Note to self... alcohol in Canada is EXPENSIVE! 

Something new and crafty I learned.... it's called "Pot Shots". Yup, you take a shot out of a pot. Sam made Nicole a personalized "pot shot pot" for her birthday! 

We enjoyed some Olympic sightings.

Oh yeah.... a few brave souls went bungee jumping....

Nicole by far was NOT the bravest <-- look at her face!  BUT she did it!

Erika enjoying the ride. 

Lindsey & Teagen getting ready to jump!

The whole group. 


It was an amazing weekend with great friends in a beautiful place.... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE!