Happy New Year!!!

Just a quick post to wish each and every one of you a very Happy New Year! Any resolutions any of you care to share? If you post a comment sharing your resolution after the first of the year I will do a random draw and send one lucky person some crafting goodies!

A wonderful evening!

Well here is a photo from our gift opening last night. My daughter was most crazy about the Zhu Zhu pets from Grandma and Grandpa. The funniest gift award goes to Aunt Sharon who creatively wrapped Meliah's gift in several boxes before she got down to the final gift. She teased Aunt Sharon for the rest of the night about all the boxes she used.

Oh and my 5 year old has made it perfectly clear that this is the last year she wants to wear a beautiful dress for Christmas!

Christmas is finally here!!!

So tonight is our family make up Christmas Eve! Looks like this time the weather is going to cooperate and things are a go!

Each year I try to do something handmade for my holiday table. I do place cards and gifts on each place setting. This year I used the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses line of paper to create my holiday themed table. I created a box using my Cricut and my Cricut Wild Card cartridge and placed window plastic over the opening. Then I filled each box with candy, tied a ribbon around the outside and placed a felt poinsettia in the center of the knot. Pretty simple!

I also decided for my place cards this year to use candles. I got these at Michael's on sale for 50 cents each and they are cinnamon. Then I cut a border strip, layered it with patterned cardstock, and punched out a scalloped circle along with a regular circle to place on the front that holds each persons name.

I also did a google search for napkin folding to find the napkin folding pattern I used for the plates. I also normally use paper plates and napkins but decided that it was time to do a more "green" christmas. So last year we bought an entire 12 piece place setting of these plain white dishes on clearance after christmas for like $23.00. There are serving dishes, coffee mugs, salt and pepper shaker, plates, bowls, dessert dishes, etc. So it was a steal of a deal for that entire set!

Well, back up to the kitchen to begin my food preparations. On the menu for this evenings festivities is Chicken Parmesan, fresh tomato mozzerella salad, Foccacia and Italian bread with seasoned dipping oil, and then my sister is making a homemade raspberry sorbet for dessert!

Christmas Delay!!!

Due to some icy road conditions in my area we had to reschedule our family Christmas celebration. So I won't be posting pictures of my holiday table decorations for a few days! Hope each of you had a very Merry Christmas eve and Christmas day.

Soon I will be doing another giveaway so check back often so you don't miss your opportunity to win!

Lake in the Hills Road Show!

I made it home safely from the Road Show this afternoon. It was so nice to meet so many of you and a huge thanks for stopping by! I am pooped and can hardly wait to get into bed tonight.

Stop by my blog after Christmas and hopefully I will have a picture of my holiday table with some paper crafting goodness! I always love having handmade goodies decorating the table at Christmas!

Last Chance!!!!

If the Cricut or Cricut accessories or cartridges are on your list for Christmas be sure to get to Costco at Lake in the Hills, Illinois to see me for some awesome deals before the store closes on Sunday! Don't you deserve a little Christmas goodness for yourself?

Holiday Decor

I decided to post my fireplace mantle decor for Christmas along with my Christmas tree. I love decorating for the holidays and this year with a new fireplace I did something completely different! Our tree is the same but housed in a new location in our living room this year.

I would love to see pictures of your holiday decor. So if you have any posted online feel free to leave me a link so I can go and check them out! I love to be inspired by how others decorate!

Come and visit with me!

Starting Tuesday December 15 I will be at Costco at Lake in the Hills Illinois for 6 consecutive days demonstrating the Cricut Electronic Personal cutter. We will have exceptional holiday specials on the Baby Bug, the Cricut Expression, the Jukebox, Essential tools kit bundle and cartridge bundles! If you do come to see me please introduce yourself so I know who you are!

If you have any friends or relatives in the Chicago area be sure to tell them to stop by as well for some excellent Cricut deals!

When the party's over...

Well gang, another fun holiday cocktail party has come and gone! I always enjoy hosting this event and getting to do one of my favorite things....talk! Anyway, I know I posted the empty table shots the other day and thought I would follow up with some shots of the table once it was all set up with the food items. Here is a list of what I prepared-

Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Antipasto tray
Smoked Salmon
Fruit and dip
Smokie links in BBQ Sauce
Apricot glazed Kielbasa
Cucumber/Dill Cocktail Rye
Small Dessert items

Cocktail Party

Each year we host a party for my husband's employees at work. This year is no exception and today I set up the table for the party. I thought I would share with all of you. Notice how things on the table are at different levels. This adds interest to the table. I also try to place a couple of candles and some decor on the table as well. Some of you may also recall the invitation sample I posted about a month ago for the party.

Anyway, tomorrow I will be very busy cooking and prepping for the event! So this week has been busy planning for the party and working on a couple more fun projects for the Wausau Paper Creative collection. Will share peeks on my blog when I can!

Christmas place card idea.....Scraplift!!!

Well for any of you who visit the Cosmo Cricket blog you will be able to tell right away that this is a stolen idea from none other than the very famous Julie Comstock! I've been trying to come up with an idea for my Christmas table setting this year and was coming up empty. Thanks to Julie I now have a plan!

So the photos above are what I came up with. I used Julie's advice and headed for the Dollar store and there I found these Tootsie roll banks and bird picks just perfect for creating these logs! I used the Nutmeg dark brown tree trunk inspired pattern as Julie did and then simply added the bird pick on the top. I added ribbon off to the left and then created the placecard on the front hanging down. Mine is already filled with Tootsie Roll goodies inside so this was super simple. Oh and the placecard on the front is made using patterned cardstock from the Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy collection!

Head on over to the Cosmo Cricket blog so you can see what Julie dreamed up that inspired this project! www.cosmocricket.typepad.com

Winners!!!

As promised today is the day to announce the winners from last week. If you recall there were to be 2 winners, one that would win the set of cards and the other that would win the paper crafting kit. I threw all names into a hat and if you posted linking to your blog or facebook you got an extra name in the hat! So the winners are-

Ladydoc- Holiday Card Set
Sandy- Paper Crafting Kit

Ok ladies, send me an e-mail with your mailing address so I can get your prizes out to you! lfalduto at charter dot net

Weekend inspriation

First a reminder to make sure you have made a post every day this last week to be entered into the drawing to win either the scrapbook supply kit or the set of cards! Read the post this past Monday and Tuesday for full instructions! I will be choosing the winners on Monday so you have the weekend to post and send your friends over to post as well!

Now as many of you know I do project work for Wausau Paper Creative Collection and the December projects are now up! You will see a gift item and another card using cardstock! So follow the link below to see the photos and full instructions! It is like taking a free class!

http://mywpcreativecollection.com/BeCreative/Project-of-the-Month/archive.aspx

Last day of Holiday Cards

Ok, today is the last day of the holiday card week! I hope each of you have enjoyed viewing the cards and that some of you have gotten some inspiration to make your own cards! I love reading each comment that gets posted on my blog so thanks to each and every one of you who took the time.

Read back to my first post this past Monday to see the prizes and how you can win! Have a wonderful weekend!

Another Holiday Card!

Ok, I know I am late today posting this but it is still December 3rd so I got it in under the wire. Anyway, again leave a comment for a chance to win. Read the previous posts to see how!

Day 3 of Holiday Cards

Welcome to another Holiday Card day on my blog! I am really enjoying creating these this week. Do you ever look to your creativity as a source of escape or therapy for things you have going in your life? For me it is an escape, a way for me to use the creative side of my brain and try to put the other side of my brain to rest. That side tends to work overtime and it is on overload this week.

So leave a comment on today's post as well as Monday and Tuesday for a chance to win at the end of the week. Remember, you get an additional entry if you link to my blog.

Day 2 of Holiday Cards and an additional chance to win!!!

So today is the second day of Holiday Card inspiration! I hope you enjoy seeing these each day as much as I have enjoyed making them. If you are reading this post but did not see yesterday's, make sure you check so you know how to win.

Today I am adding a second way for you to win. That is right, a way to get a second entry into the random draw! Post a link to my blog on your blog or facebook page. Once you have the link posted then come back here and comment that you did that and also leave a link so I can check out your blog or facebook page. If you don't have a blog or facebook page then feel free to post on a craft message board or somewhere else that will encourage others to pop over and be inspired.

So to get 2 entries:
1. Post a comment on each card thread here on my blog each day.
2. Link from your blog, facebook page, message board, back to my blog.

Enjoy your day and I hope this card inspires you! Oh and feel free to scraplift any of these cards if you like, I am so flattered when folks do that!

EDITED: Ok, to answer a couple of questions.
1. The hanging "ornaments" are actually a row of tree rub ons from the Heidi Grace Christmas line a couple of years ago. But don't they look like ornaments?
2. The border punch I used was Fiskars Apron Lace.