Holiday Blogging

Oh my goodness. I’ve been down for the count with a sinus infection since this past Wednesday. On Wednesday I had a a huge sinus pressure headache, along with severe nausea. I left work and went straight to urgent care. And just as I had suspected, I got another sinus infection. My first one this year, but my 3rd one these past two years. I got my meds and came home to rest. I was nauseous for two days and hardly ate anything. Couldn’t work or do anything on the computer. By Saturday I was finally feeling better. I’m still not 100%. I feel bad because now I’m so behind on work and personal things. Sigh.

This month I am blogging fun holiday posts here at Listgirl of course, but also at One Little Bird, Write.Click.Scrapbook., and The Lilypad.

Last week I blogged a guest post at One Little Bird with a free printable patterned tape download.

Be sure to stop by Peppermint’s blog and read all about the DIY printable patterned tape that you can use for gift wrapping! I will also be guest blogging over there this Friday with another printable download, so be sure to stop by again. It’s a One Little Bird Christmas over there! It’ll be a month full of holiday blogging, challenges, and goodies by the One Little Bird creative team.


This Wednesday I’ll have my first blog post up at Write.Click.Scrapbook. It’s a fun holiday craft post and I’ll link up to it when it goes live!

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3rd Annual Elf Party

Saturday night was our 3rd Annual Elf Party at our house. The movie Elf is one of our favorite Christmas movies and we watch it every December. The last two years we’ve had dinner + movie parties with friends to make it a fun tradition.

Last year I made treat bags with the help of print & cut using my Silhouette digital cutter. This year I wanted to go bigger and make Elf Party t-shirts for our guests. So I set to work a couple of weeks ago and purchased the blank t-shirts. I found a graphic of Buddy the Elf online, and I opened it up inside my Silhouette Studio software and traced the outline. Then I used the font Bebas and typed out one of my favorite Elf quotes.


I moved the text out of the cut zone and cut out the Elf outline, using Silhouette’s Flocked Heat Transfer Sheet in red. I loaded it into the machine with the opaque side up, or shiny colorful side down.


After it’s been cut and I removed it from the machine, I peeled away the extraneous parts of the flocking.


Here it is, colorful side up with the clear shiny sheet on top, ready for ironing onto the t-shirt!


Before you start putting designs on the blank t-shirts, you should wash, dry, and iron them. That way the shirts won’t shrink and ruin the designs. Put the iron setting on about 300 degrees, or the cotton setting. Then place the design where you want it on the shirt, and put a piece of pressing cloth on top. Press down for 45-60 seconds. Then peel away the shiny sheet to reveal the flocking. If the design hasn’t totally adhered to the shirt, iron some more until the shiny sheet peels away. Here you can see the design on the t-shirt. The flocking material gives it a velvet texture.


Next, I cut out the text on cardstock and removed the letters to create a template. You can use adhesive vinyl, freezer paper, or contact paper also.


I position the template where I want the text on my t-shirt, and I use a foam brush to apply fabric ink to it.


Make sure you put a piece of cardboard inside the shirt, underneath where you’re applying the fabric ink, so that it doesn’t seep through to the back of the shirt! After the ink is dry, press on it with an iron again to set the ink.

And here they are!


I mixed cyan and yellow inks to get the green ink.


I also bought some blank kraft Moleskine notebooks and stamped snowflakes on them using the Peace Be Still stamp set from Papertrey Ink. I stamped the “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear” quote from Elf using red ink on top of the snowflakes. The stamp is from the Stylish Sentiments: Holiday stamp set from Papertrey Ink.


I put candies into glassine bags and sealed them with washi tapes.


The notebooks, treats, and holiday cards went into a cute felt bag for our guests to take home.




We cooked Spring Vegetable Pasta, a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen.


And Thai Chicken Risotto from Cooking Light.


Some mingling right before dinner.


Elf dinner with our guests.


I was so thrilled when I showed the t-shirts to everyone that they decided to all change into the shirts for the evening!

Todd made a spice cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert.


And Victoria brought a homemade pumpkin pie.


Mmm. Any party with TWO desserts is a success in my book!


We had fun watching Elf again with our friends! The 3rd Annual Elf Party was a success and we can’t wait to think of new party favors and party plans for next year! :)

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Write.Click.Scrapbook. | 2013 Calendars

It’s December, which means it’s daily blogging from various team members at Write.Click.Scrapbook.! I designed some 2013 calendars a couple of weeks ago, and Celeste wrote the blog post featuring some ways that each of us used the calendars! You can see the whole blog post here.

I designed some printable 3x4 calendar cards that you can use in your Project Life, or any other scrapbooking or crafting endeavors.



They are on two pages of PDF, ready to print! So head on over to Write.Click.Scrapbook., where you can download these, plus a couple of other fun calendar templates and downloads! :)

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Everyday Storyteller | Holiday Sale

I wanted to alert you to a special holiday sale of a book that I contributed to, “Everyday Storyteller”.



Both the digital edition and the digital + print edition are on sale from now until December 5th. If you want to purchase the digital + print edition, you’ll need to hurry because there are only a handful of copies left (less than 20).

I’m so proud to have contributed to this book, along with many of my favorite scrapbookers such as Amy Tan, Elise Blaha Cripe, Sara Gleason, CD Muckosky, Melissa Stinson, Elle Price, Crystal Livesay, and many others. There are 33 contributors in total. You can see the list here.

The print edition of the book is beautiful.


The inside of the book is choke full of inspiration and tips about capturing moments and telling stories. I think it’s a great idea book to add to your scrapbooking library collection!

Here’s a peek at my contribution.


For the next three days you can purchase the book at a special holiday discount. You can purchase it here.

If you’re on the fence, you can read the following reviews by some scrapbookers I admire:

• Katie Nelson (Katie The Scrapbook Lady)
• Kam of Campfire Chic

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Write.Click.Scrapbook. Layout | You’re My Favorite

It’s the beginning of the month and the December gallery at Write.Click.Scrapbook. has launched! This month’s gallery theme is Favorite Photos, and I’m completely blown away and inspired by every one of my teammates’ layouts!

See the whole December Gallery here.

See the gallery post here. Be sure to read the notes and fun facts from each team member. I found those really interesting and entertaining!

I chose this photo of Todd as my favorite photo right now. I just think he looks so handsome in it, and he’s standing in front of Ghirardelli Chocolate in San Francisco after all. Todd + chocolate = double favorite! :)


Here’s my layout for the WCS December Gallery.

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts) + patterned papers (October Afternoon, BasicGrey, Studio Calico, American Crafts, Echo Park) + vellum paper (Strathmore) + embellishments (Freckled Fawn, BasicGrey, My Mind's Eye, American Crafts, October Afternoon, Studio Calico) + twine (The Twinery) + stamps (Studio Calico, American Crafts, Freshed Baked Paper Goods on Etsy) + ink (Momento, Prima) + digital graphics (Lauren Grier, Elle's Studio) + die-cut machine (Silhouette) + font (Blackout) + Photoshop Actions (Totally Rad)

I chose papers and colors that went well with my chosen photo. I chose the brown cardstock because it played well with the bricks on the Ghirardelli building in the photo, and because the turquoise colors really popped against the darker background.

Since the theme was Favorite Photos, I thought a banner of cameras strung up below the photo would be cute. I punched holes on the little paper cameras and used twine to string them up.

Then I anchored them below the photo with two brads.


Journaling.


I used some washi tape to anchor the top, then I stapled my title banner onto it.


I designed the “You’re My Favorite” banner in Silhouette Studio and cut it out with my Silhouette digital cutter. If you like it, you can download the file below and use it on your own projects! :)

Download: You’re My Favorite Banner (Silhouette .studio cut file)

Time really flies when you’re busy! I can’t believe another month has gone by already. I have some fun blog posts scheduled in December, so be sure to stop by!

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