Picking out a tree!

I think this is the earliest we've gotten a tree, ever!  I managed to get a few pictures before my kids piled back into the car.  While we still don't have the tree up in our house yet, it's nice to know we have it!  Monday, it WILL go up Monday!!

Cierra getting Carter all bundled up, trying to convince him that a stocking cap would be MUCH warmer than his baseball hat!  She won!

Just a few pictures!

In an attempt to complete a December Daily Album and having fun with my new lens, I've been taking a TON of photos lately! 

Blog Hop Winner!!!

Thank you all so much for your comments!  You're all the best!!  It was great viewing all the fun  projects!
Ok, the random drawing winner is Cassie!!  Congrats Cassie!  Send me a convo on CK with your address and I'll get those boxes out to you!

Ginger the Elf!

We now have a little visitor at our house.  Santa sent an elf to keep an eye on our kids to see who is being good!  Her name is Ginger.  Isn't she cute?  She IS cute but she's also quite the explorer!  The boys have woken each day to find her in different place, doing different things.  Hopefully everything she "gets into" will be clean! 

Handmade Holiday Blog Hop

Hello!!!  Welcome to our blog hop!  You'll find lots and lots of great project.  I'm the second stop on this fun hop so if you started here with me be sure to start at Amanda's blog and follow along.  I had a very hard time deciding what to make for this blog hop so I ended up making a few things, all using scrappy supplies!  It's always fun making anything with scrappy supplies.

The first thing I have to share with you is an ornament I made for some ladies at church.  I copied and blew up part of the Christmas hymn Joy To The World.  The ornament is only about 2x3 inches.  I had some thicker material (kind of like chipboard) that I used, only it's white.  I made a rosette flower to add that punch of color.  Then I spayed the whole thing with a little glimmer mist. 

My next project is actually the first thing I thought of making.  Banners are so popular right now so I thought it would be fun to make a Christmas one.  I found these chipboard triangles at Craft Warehouse with made for a great base.  I love the Echo Park Christmas paper and used that for this project.  Add a little glimmer mist, letters cut with my Cricut and add a few scallop edges and DONE!  Quick and easy!  A LITTLE TIP!!!  When I sprayed my triangle with Glimmer mist of course it rippled where there was no adhesive holding it to the chipboard.  I took my heat gun and dried it and all the ripples smoothed out!  Very cool!

Lately it seems like wherever I go I'm finding things that make me think, "I should buy one of those so I can make a pattern from it."  Cute boxes, bags, french fry boxes, etc.  Well this darling little box was made all by trial and error! No pattern with this one!  I'm pretty proud of myself!  And I have a short tutorial for you!

3x3 boxes with a nice window to show off some kind of goody of your choice!  Who wouldn't love some homemade cookies in this cute little package? 

So, a 3x3 box and add in a 1/2 inch for tabs to put the box together. 

So here's the pattern with some measurements for ya.  It really is east to make!  If you score your paper first then the scoring lines act as a guide where to stop cutting.  Start with a 9X12 paper and score every 3 inches (folding lines) in both directions.  Then you'll know where to cut making sure to account for you 1/2 inch for tabs.  Have I lost you.

After you have the shape cut out then you an cut little notches out of the corners. It makes it much easier to fold the box together with the corners cut out.  Use any shape punch you want to punch out your window. 

 For my "window" I used a small zip close bag bag I had purchased at Wal*Mart in a pack of 100 for cheap!  They come in quite handy for many things!  SO, another little tip, apply your adhesive to the BOX not the plastic.  Then trim off the extra.

Then start folding and applying your adhesive with your tabs in the inside.  The only problem with my box pattern being this size is that there's not enough paper to leave a tab at the top of the box to close it.  BUT  if you have paper with the extra tab printed with the manufacturer on it that part works great as the extra piece for another tab. (see picture below)

And here's a bunch of boxes finished.  I love the double sided paper for these projects, it's fun to see the paper on the inside through the window.

And now for a giveaway!!!  Who doesn't love giveaways?  Leave me a comment and I'll enter you in a drawing for a kit to make 5 Christmas boxes!  Add yourself as a follower of my blog and I'll enter you in the drawing twice!  I'll pick a winner early next week!  Hopefully Monday.  I'm very sorry but I'm limiting this giveaway to US residents only.

Thanks for stopping by!!  Your next stop is Jennifer's blog.

New lens preview

As I mentioned, I received a new lens for my birthday and I am in love!!  Just wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures using my new lens!

This last one is a hat that my sister in law made for me (for my birthday).  She is crazy talented at knitting and crocheting things!!!  Thanks Jill!!!

Happy Birthday to me!

I was definitely spoiled this year!!  I have the best family and friends!!!  My Birthday was a week ago and on that day Alex took Cierra and I out for our Birthday dinner. Mmmm, Olive Garden is always yummy!!  While we were gone Harley babysat the boys and had them help make a birthday cake for me.  It was a fun surprise! 

I have an awesome friend who I've known for a few years but just met her in person for the first time this last spring.  She was very sweet and sent me this necklace and earring set that she made!  They are beautiful and I've worn them quite a few times already!!  She's very talented!!  You can check out her blog here.  Thanks Amanda!!!

Alex informed me the Friday-ish before my birthday that my package was going to be late so I was anxiously waiting for the FedEx man last week!!  Of course he just HAD to deliver it when Alex wasn't home so I had to wait until he got back so I could open it!  A new lens for my camera.  It's a 50mm f/1.4 Canon lens and I absolutely love it!!!  Thanks Alex!!  Love you, you're the best!!!

 

And if that wasn't enough....he remembered that I said someday i wanted a wide format printer.  He had told me that another box was coming on Friday.  I seriously had no idea what it could be and was completely surprised when this came!  So now I need to figure out how to do a digi scrapbook page, LOL.  This new toy will get lots of use that's for sure!!

You can call me crazy but yes, I love to shop on Black Friday!! I think it's so much fun and you really can find some awesome deals!!  And the bonus is that I usually have Birthday money to spend at the same time!  So thanks to both sets of parents for some Birthday money I found these babies on sale!!  (still have $$ left over)  I totally love them!  This is the first time I've gone a little crazy with my shoe color but they are so fun!

Got sung to at my in laws house during Thanksgiving!  Always a treat!