Tis The Season - JustNick Studios

hello blogging friends!
It's that time of year again where JustNick Studios is giving away FREE digital cut files! I hope you have been downloading them, because they are FREE only for one day ...

On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 8 Maids a-milking ... Well, I have no maids a-milking for you today ... but I do have this awesome 'Tis The Season digital cut file for FREE!

I knew the Tis The Season cut file would make an awesome title for my Christmas layout. I combined it with the Winter Frame cut file that was free a few days ago. I hope you snatched it up then, if not it is still available in the store for purchase.

I love getting my Christmas decorations out and making the house more festive.

Here is a closer look at the Tis The Season title...

It's hard to tell, but if you look closely you can see I used the Winter Frame to create a shaker element. Can you see the sequins in the middle of the frame. Some transparent vellum over the top allows them to move around a bit. I machine stitched around the edge of the frame to make sure the sequins would stay put.

I really love how this layout turned out!

Enter the code: TISFREE at checkout to get this design for free. 

This code is only valid until midnight CST on December 8th, 2018.

No purchase necessary. Coupon code must be entered to receive this item for free. No refunds will be given.The design will still be available in the JustNick Store for purchase after the discount code expires.

Thanks so much for stopping by ... Come back tomorrow for another FREE cut file! Happy Holidays!!

25 Days Of Christmas Tags

Hello blogging friends!

I am so excited to be participating in the 25 Days of Christmas Tags. This fabulous event has been organized by the talented Tracey McNeely. As in past years, she has lined up some amazing sponsors (and prizes!). You will want to hop over to her blog (link at the end of this post) and check out the prizes and all the awesome tags! I created these adorable penguin holiday tags, but there is lots more Jillibean Soup inspiration for you today.

I used three different penguin digital cut files from Jillibean Soup that are available in the Silhouette store. It's actually the same penguin but dressed in different outdoor winter wear. Jillibean Soup just came out with fun new dots and plaids paper pads and I used these for the hats, mittens, and scarf. Then I stamped the sentiments with brand new Jillibean Soup stamps sets. You will find these sentiments on the new coffee and ice cream stamp/shaker sets. "You Warm My Heart" and "You're the Coolest" are perfect penguin sentiments too, don't you think?

Check out all these sponsors!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Are you ready to get your craft on and make some Holiday tags now? Hop on over to Tracey's blog (HERE) for more inspiration.

~Marcia

JOY - Cocoa Vanilla Studios and JustNick

Hello blogging friends.

JustNick is celebrating the Holidays by giving you free cut files. Everyday a different cut file is FREE. No purchase necessary.

I shared this layout on Tuesday using the "JOY" cutfile that was the freebie that day.

I used the gorgeous Cocoa Vanilla Studios Tis The Season collection. This collection is so refreshing with its non-traditional colors and the embellishments are amazing. This is a photo of my family a couple of years ago. One of the gifts my husband and I like to give our kids is to take them and their significant others out to the theater and dinner. This photo was taken when we went to "Elf" the Broadway musical. It's not the best photo.... it was taken with my phone by one of the elves. My kids tell me I am not allowed to pick the show we go to anymore, lol. This was geared way more toward the little kids, and I was expecting adult humor.

Here are some detailed pics of those awesome embellishments I was talking about; die cut ephemera, bitty bows, little stars, enamel dots, flair, wood veneer, and more.

Great news from Cocoa Vanilla Studios..... Two FABULOUS new collections have just been released; Free Spirit and Hello Sunshine . Take a look..,..

These are even better looking in person! I know they are hard to get here in the USA, but if you are desperate, you can purchase directly from Zoe, in the Cocoa Vanilla Studios shop. Check the StockList link for the latest updates on where you can find it.

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to stop by the JustNick blog everyday for those freebies!

~Marcia

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - Top Dog Dies

Hello blogging friends.

I gift lots of gift cards for the Holidays as my nieces and nephews are older and have rather particular preferences. I like to present them in a pretty setting though. Much more festive than those ordinary gift card envelopes. I used my new Top Dog Dies Snowman die set to make this one.

The bottom half of this card opens. I can secure the gift card to the front and still write a sentiment inside. Some gift cards are just too pretty to cover up. The top of the card was easily decorated with a tag from Chic Tags and my snowman. A few scattered snowflakes completes the card.

Thanks for stopping by. Top Dog Dies is having a Black Friday Sale. It's going on now. Be sure to check it out.

~Marcia

The More You Read - Cocoa Vanilla Studios

Hello blogging  friends!

Today I am sharing one more layout with the gorgeous Cocoa Vanilla Studio Life is Beautiful collection before I dive into posting more Christmas projects. Everyday photos work so well with this collection. There are pattern papers for scrapping boys as well as girls. Today I am sharing a layout of my friend's little reader …

 

The butterfly pattern paper worked so well with this outdoor photo. I made sure I included more butterflies in my embellishment clusters.

 

In my embellishment clusters, I included die cuts, wood veneers, enamel dots, and flair buttons. What is so great about all of Cocoa Vanilla Studio's collections is the variety of embellishments.

 

My title is a quote from Dr Suess, "The more you read the more things you know. The more that you learn the more places you'll go". There were plenty of alpha stickers on a single sheet for me to do this. I love the combination of smaller alphas with the larger alphas.

 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week! 

 ~Marcia

Santa Baby - Cocoa Vanilla Studios

Hello blogging friends!

I have a layout to share today that I created with the beautiful and festive Tis The Season collection. I am in love with the soft pretty papers in this collection and just wait til you see the gorgeous coordinating embellishments! Here is my layout ...

 

It's hard to believe that smiling girl used to scream her lungs out when made to sit on Santa's lap, lol.  All those different Tis The Season embellishments make it easy to create fun clusters like this one...

 

You can see I used the die cuts from the ephemera pack, a flair button, wood veneers, and some stickers. I added the twine and the "naughty or nice" with a stamp I had. 

The title and subtitle were created from the alpha sticker sheet....

   

 More wood veneers and a gorgeous flower help to frame my photo.

 

A few more on the other side of the photo along with another flair button help to balance out my layout. 

 

One more picture, because I love the merry die cut that works so well as a photo clip.

   

 I hope I've convinced you to put "Tis The Season" on your Christmas wish list.
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your weekend!

 ~Marcia

A Trio of Gift Card Holders - Xyron Tutorial

Hello blogging friends. I have some adorable gift cards to share with you that I created with the Doodlebug Frosty Friends collection, my Silhouette, and of course Xyron adhesives.

Let me show you how I created them...

These Silhouette cut files are by Jamie Cripps and are available in the Silhouette store. Only the bottom half of the card opens, to reveal a gift card.

When I am cutting lots of die cuts, I have a tendency to lose the little pieces (like the dots for an i). I like to keep my 2.5" Xyron Sticker Maker close by so as soon as I take a die cut off the cutting mat, I place it into my sticker maker.

Sometimes there is a little glue residue remaining on my die cut.

Xyron has a handy tool to help remove that. It's a little square of rubber that grabs hold of the adhesive.

On a couple of my cards, I wanted to created a shaker using some vellum and a few sequins.

I kept my sequins to the outside as the die cut would just cover any in the middle. I carefully stitched around the edge. Then pieced my cards together. A little bakers twine and a paper clip to keep the card closed finish them off.

These would make great teacher gifts, but I plan on gifting these to my teenage nieces and nephews.

Supplies:
Xyron Tape Runner
Xyron 2.5" Create-a-Sticker machine
Adhesive Eraser
Doodlebug Frosty Friends pattern paper, clips
bakers twine
Silhouette Cameo
Jamie Cripps cutting files
Sequins
vellum
Brother sewing machine

There is lots of time to create a few of these festive gift card holders for yourself!
~Marcia

Firecrackers Table Decor - Imaginisce Inspiration

Hello blogging friends! Are you hosting any 4th of July BBQs? If so, I have the perfect table decor that I created for Imaginisce. My BBQ guests will get a BANG out of these (sorry, couldn't resist the pun)...

Those are upcycled toilet paper and paper towel rolls (I cut the paper towel tube down). I wrapped them with pattern papers, tied them together and added some embellishments. Cut your paper 1" wider than the roll. Once you have it glued on the roll, cut slits around the end so you can wrap the paper around to glue down on the inside. If your kids are getting bored already on summer vacation, they can help make these. Cut a circle larger than the tube, punch a hole in the middle and string some fibers through for your fuse and adhere inside tubes. I used papers from the Imaginisce Perfect Vacation collection and the Love You More collection.

Supplies:

Imaginisce : Pattern Papers (Perfect Vacation, Love You More)

American Crafts: Cardstock

Linking up with Paper Issues: "In the Navy" theme. This fits the Red, White, and Blue patriotic option.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Marcia

Fourth of July - Creative Scrappers #270 Reveal

Hello blogging friends. It's my first reveal for Creative Scrappers today!!! I've had a lot of fun using Kristine's sketches in the past and I am still in a daze that I a part of this design team with such talented ladies. You really must checkout the other designers takes on this one. WOW!
Here is Kristine's sketch ...

With pocket scrapbooking being so trendy, grid designs for layouts are a growing trend too. Here is my take on the sketch using the fabulous patriotic Pebbles Americana collection...

I've had this collection for months! I am so glad that I finally got some of our DC trip pictures scrapped! Hubby and I celebrated our 30th anniversary in Washington DC over the Fourth of July last summer. It was my first time there, but my hubby has been there before for work and when he was military. Of course we had to watch the fireworks over the Capital Mall. AMAZING!!! We got there about 4:00 in the afternoon. It was already crowded with people saving spots. By the time the fireworks started, we were sitting real close to people on all sides! You can see the Washington Monument in the pic on the left and the crowds of people. I snapped these pictures with my phone so the smaller photos in the grid design worked real well as the quality is not as good.

Here are some close-ups. I found this fabulous title in the Silhouette library. What caught my attention was the rocket. It reminded me of the pattern paper with rockets in the Americana collection. Some gesso under the title really makes it pop and keeps the background from being too distracting.

The Americana collection also comes with these amazing die cuts too. I couldn't resist using this LOVE stamp since it was our anniversary :)

The star washi from Love My Tapes was PERFECT! Don't you love how that looks!

Supplies:
Pebbles: Pattern Paper, Die Cuts (Americana collection)
American Crafts: cardstock
Silhouette Cameo,  Fourth of July cut file
The Twinery: bakers twine in Maraschino
Love My Tapes: star washi
Studio Calico: Gold stars
Sewing machine, thread
Gesso

Love My Tapes is sharing washi tape storage ideas today. How do you store your washi? I am embarrassed to admit, I had mine in a tote. I needed a way to keep my Love My Tapes washi separated from the rest of my stash. I wanted something I could have out on my desk that would be a reminder to me to use it. If I can see my stash I am more apt to use it. I found this fabulous treasure at my local Michaels store...

The top opens to allow easy access to my washi :)  The other designers have such fabulous storage systems too. You can check them out on the Love My Tapes blog.

Enjoy whats left of your weekend. I hope to see you playing along with Creative Scrappers.
~Marcia