Christmas Cookie & Coffee Holder

Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you had a wonderful day filled with good food and family fun! We have traveled to Nebraska to spend the holiday with my mother-in-law. I had to run into town to run some errands and thought I would stop into McD's for a fruit smoothie and quickly update my blog, check my mail, etc. (No internet or cell service out in the country!) I know -- I told myself it might do me some good to go "unplugged" for the week -- BUT I JUST CAN'T! I'll go unplugged "most" of the time. Does that count? ;o)

Anyway, I had meant to post this a WEEK ago and ran out of time. A very precious commodity that I seem to lack enough of! Anyway, I wanted to share these simple little gifts that I made for each of my croppers at my last all day crop.


You can use any sort of drink you want - I chose one of MY favs - Starbucks frappacinos's! For one of my younger croppers, I used a YooHoo chocolate milk drink. Then slide a cookie of your choice in the little slot - instant yummy gratification! :o)

These can be embellished a million different ways! For the green one, I added prisma glitter to one of our dimensional elements snowflakes. For the red one I added prisma glitter to the scallopped flap and the scallopped edge on the tag! (Everything is better with a little sparkle!)

These would be quick and EASY gifts to make for friends, neighbors, teachers, Sunday School teachers, and co-workers! Just about anyone!

It's so simple and could be modified for any occassion!

Start with an 11" x 4" piece of cardstock scored at 3", 6", 6 1/2", 9 1/2", 10".

Cut a circle out of the first 3" section large enough to slide over your bottle (~2").

Then cut 1/2 an oval shape out of the cookie section to showcase your culinary creation! Embellish as desired!

I will be having a workshop in December with easy cookie gift ideas, including this one.

Hope you can join me!

Until then, enjoy your holiday!

Christmas Cookie Recipe Album

One of my clubs is hosting a Christmas Cookie exchange next month! I LOVE cookies! I love FOOD!! Anyway - everyone is to prepare a 6x6 layout including their recipe. I decided to use our My Creations Display album to store the recipes in. Then I decided to add on our Festive Memories Christmas Card Kit and tweek it a little! These gorgeous photo cards come with beautiful coordinating adhesive artwork (stickease) along with red and green sparkles to glam it up a bit! Using our 4x6 Flip Flaps, I cut the 5x7 cards down to just a 4x6 frame and slid it into the flip flap. Then decorated the outside of the flip flap. I plan on putting a photo of the person in the front frame, the cookie ingredients on the inside flap and the cooking instructions on the base page! I can't wait to sample all the cookies and get photos of each of them to include with their recipes!


I used Liquid Applique and Prisma Glitter on the "cookie" to make it look like frosting!


There are 12 pages - Here is a sampling:





Here is the flip flap open:


With the left over, cut off part of the cards, I was able to make eleven 3 1/2" x 5" cards, and use up the leftover stickease and sparkles too! You can use them for place settings, Thank you cards, gift tags or Christmas Cards! Here are just a couple -

So cute!! I'm offering this as another one of my kits available to anyone by mail or attending one of my upcoming crops! The kit, which will make a 12 page album and 11 cards, is $35 and includes:

My Creations Display Album

Festive Memories Card Kit

12 - 4x6 Flip Flaps

Cardstock and B&T paper to create the 12 base pages

Cardstock to cover the inside front and back

Paper, Ribbon & Accessories to create the cover as shown

This would also make a wonderful gift for family or friends filled with your favorite Christmas Recipes, Cookie Recipes, Family Favorite Recipes, or a collection of recipes from any group (neighbors, bible study, clubs, family, etc.).

For those who want to create coordinating names or titles on the inside, I used the Jasmine Cricut cartridge with the shadow - 2" size. I'm off to try out some cookie recipes!! :o)

Olivia Wall Hanging & Paper Flowers tutorial

I fell in love with this project and the flowers when I saw them on Debbie's blog! Simply Stunning! And the flower technique is SO COOL! Watch Tracy Mason's video tutorial here so you too can make these cool flowers for ANY project! Make one along with her and you will see how easy it is and how beautiful they turn out!

Our Mix & Mingle albums can be used in so many different ways! You can actually make a mini album, use the different pieces as interactive elements or frames in your layouts, cards and other artwork, as a table top display as seen on page 38 of the Autumn/Winter Idea Book, or as a wall hanging (see also pg. 86 of the Autumn/Winter Idea Book.) They come with 3 clear and 5 white chipboard pages to Mix & Mingle as desired! My wall hanging only used 6 pages, so I used the remaining 2 pages to create a coordinating card to give with the wall hanging. I added our Dimensional Elements Fresh Shapes (inked with Pear ink), and a few of our new Pearl Opaques. I also choose to use our Dimensional Elements Monograms to add the initial of the person I'm giving it to. On the inside of my card, I added a page with words that reflect the person's character and also begin with the letter "C"! You could add as many pages as you want and make a mini-album!







Make this project with left-overs from your Olivia kit or choose any paper pack! Want to make your own customized gift at one of my upcoming workshops? I'll order you the Mix & Mingle album along with an accessory & Monogram of your choice. YOU bring the paper - or choose your Level 2 paper pack and I'll order that for you as well!

Olivia Kit Club and Projects

I wanted to share with you what we are making in my Kit Clubs this month! I LOVE this paper pack - filled with the rich, warm colors of Autumn! Members of my club enjoy the benefit of getting together each month to work on layouts or cards or other projects with their kits. We always learn a new technique each month to use on our projects, enjoy each other's company - sharing stories of the past week, and eat delicious snacks prepared by our hostess! Each month, one of the girls gets to be the "hostess" and earn FREE products just for showing up! How cool is that?

Here is the featured layout we are doing:


Here is an additional layout using this kit and our new Magic book:


Here are the featured cards (6 total):


Here are additional cards you can make using this kit and our Originals book:

Add on our beautiful coordinating stickease for only $4.95 more and you can create these gorgeous layouts:



Add on our new Mix & Mingle album and you can create a stunning wall hanging too!

Everyone of my club members will receive a cute little pumpkin (inspired by Deneen Treble) along with a card using our fabulous stamp of the month - A Little Thanks! I'm so thankful for you guys! :o)

In order to MAX OUT my kit and use it all up, I'm creating a TON of thank you cards using this MUST HAVE stamp set. Check back to see those - coming soon....