simple christmas + giveaway winner

Are you getting ready for Christmas? I love this time of year! My shopping is nearly done, and I am very happy about that. I like to get it done early so I can focus on other things during the month of December. Rebecca Cooper of Simple as That is doing a Simple Christmas countdown where she will have 25 days of fun-filled blog posts with ideas to help make the holidays a little more simple. You can get a glimpse of her Simple Christmas posts from last year by clicking here. Inspiring... lots of things I want to try!

Rebecca is an extremely talented person, and so nice, too! I plan on spending a few minutes each day perusing her blog for fun ideas. For the first day of Simple Christmas, she has a really fun Christmas countdown idea. Click here to check it out. This is a fun tradition we do in our home, too. My kids look forward to it every year.

Make sure you check her blog tomorrow for an exciting giveaway that I'm excited to be a part of!

Now, for the winner of my new printable advent calendar:




Congrats! Shoot me an e-mail so I can get your prize to you!

new printable advent calendar + giveaway

Can you believe December is almost here? I can't! I've been gearing up for it, though. One thing my kids love during this month is a daily advent. I put together some advent envelopes to use this year and they are now available here in my shop at ScrapMatters. I hung them up as a garland on a banister in our hallway. You could also string them up on a wall, stack them in a cute basket, or even use them as tree ornaments! I am going to write a fun activity to do as a family on each of the cards and let my kids take turns each day opening the envelopes to see what we will do for that day. You could also write a thought or a scripture for each day on the cards. I think it would be fun to write a part of the Christmas story (or the coordinating scripture reference to look up and read) on the card.





I would suggest printing the envelopes on a thinner paper (even just normal copy/printer paper would work) and the card inserts on cardstock. I had some used grocery sacks in my recycle box that I pulled out and decided to repurpose into 8.5x11 sheets that I could run through my printer. I took some photos of the process and put together some simple instructions below if you want to try this. It's actually quite simple, and I love the look of the envelopes printed on the sack paper.

1. Carefully undo flaps on bottom of sack (if this bottom part tears, no worries, you're going to cut it off anyway). Cut along one corner of the sack so it opens to one big flat piece. Cut off bottom part. *Note: At this point, it would probably be easiest to iron the whole sack to flatten the creases. I cut first and then ironed each piece, but I think it would make it easier to cut if it were ironed first.
2. Cut bag into 8.5"x11" sheets. You'll need 12 sheets if you are going to print all 24 envelopes. I was able to get 6 sheets from one sack, so you'll need 2 sacks. (You could also do the 12 days of Christmas instead and only print envelopes 1-12.) When I laid out my unfolded sack, the short end was approximately 17 inches, so I just cut down the middle to make it 8.5" wide. I then cut those 8.5" wide strips into 11" lengths. I used a paper trimmer to get nice straight edges so it would feed through the printer easily. Some of them were up to .25" smaller on either dimension, but they worked fine.
3. If you didn't iron in step 1, you may want to iron out the creases of each piece now... it makes the paper more easily go through the printer.
4. Print all your envelopes on your newly cut sack papers... make sure to print on the blank side of the sack. Print the card inserts on the cardstock color of your choice.
5. Assemble the envelopes according to the instructions included in the printable (found here in my shop).
6. To create a garland out of the envelopes, clip them to a piece of twine, string, or ribbon. (I found my snowflake clips at World Market). You could also punch a small hole in the top of the envelope instead of using clips. If you don't want a garland, it would be cute to stack the envelopes in a little box or basket, or you could use them as tree ornaments.

I think these would also look great on regular paper (white, tan, kraft... whatever color you want!) if you don't have grocery sacks handy. You can grab these printable envelopes/cards today at ScrapMatters for 25% off through today!



Do you want to win this printable set of envelopes and cards? Just leave a comment on this post by the end of today (11:59 pm MST)! Get extra an extra chance by posting about this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook or your blog – or all three. Come back here and post links in the comments section. Post as a new comment each time so every entry counts towards your chances to win. (If you buy the printable envelopes while they're on sale at ScrapMatters and are chosen as the winner, I will give you a gift card to my store for the amount you spent.)

I'll announce the winner sometime on Tuesday. Good luck!

start your engines!

My son recently celebrated his birthday, and he decided he wanted a race car themed party. I love throwing birthday parties for my kids, and I'm always looking for ideas, so I thought I'd share what we did. I created the invitation in Photoshop using Erica Zane's kit Jack's Track. This kit was perfect and had exactly what I was looking for. Here's what the invitation looked like:



Some photos from the party:



I went to Partyland and picked up balloons and checkered flag banners for decorations. I used bright yellow for the tablecloths and party sacks and bright red for the plates, napkins, and cups. I have a big car mat from Home Depot that I laid out on the floor with our big bucket of cars for the kids to play with as they arrived. Once everyone got there, we started with the activities and games. We played Pin the Wheel on the Car (also created using Jack's Track) and had relay races in the backyard. For the party favor, I used canvas and felt to make a road mat for each kid. As one of the party activities, they got to decorate their mats however they wanted with permanent Sharpies. They were so creative and loved drawing homes, trees, restaurants, etc. on their mats. At the end of the party, we also gave each kid their own new Hot Wheels car to take home with their roads. I made the cupcakes using plastic race cars and checkered flag toothpicks (both also found at Partyland) for the toppers. It was a successful party and I think all the kids had fun!

manic monday sale - 50% off

Can you believe we're already half way through November? Seriously, where does the time go? I'm really excited for this week... I LOVE Thanksgiving. We're meeting at my mom's on Thursday for yummy traditional turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. Mmmmmm! Then on Friday, my mom, sister, and I wake up before the sun is even up and go brave the crowds to score some good deals. To be honest, at this point it's less about the good deal for me (although I love that, too) and more about the tradition we have of going each year and how much fun we have. It really is a good time, and I hope to get all of my Christmas shopping done that day.

To help keep me organized during this busy season, I use a holiday planner. I make lists for just about everything, and the gift lists in my planner really help me out for Day After Thanksgiving shopping. I have these printable sheets in my shop and they are half off today only (just click on the image below to take you to my shop)!



That is a great deal, and now is the perfect time to pick them up so you can use them for the next month. I actually keep my planner close by year round in case someone has a change of address or if I have a great gift idea in July, for example, I can jot it down so I remember. Very handy.

I hope you all (here in the U.S.) have a great Thanksgiving day and get to eat lots of good food!

clickinmoms

Have you heard of Clickinmoms? It's an awesome community of photographers who learn from each other and willingly share tips with each other. I joined a few years ago and have learned a lot from perusing the forums. There are all kinds of tutorials and very experienced photographers who are members and willing to share their knowledge. It's a great place. Right now they are having a giveaway for a photo editing class that looks amazing. I would love to take this class.

Go to their blog to check it out.


You can also sign up for their newsletter while you're there. You don't have to be a member of their site to get the newsletter, and if they get 20,000 subscribers by Black Friday they're giving away a huge digital gift pack that's full of all kinds of useful information.

If you decide to join their site, I would love it if you click through to the site from the link below because then it registers that you were directed there from here. I'm not sure how it all works, but I believe they have an affiliate program that will give people credits if they refer others.

and the winner is...

Winners, actually. Thank you all so much for your nice comments. Since this is my first digital kit giveaway, I decided to choose 2 winners. Using random.org, the winners of my new Merriment digital kit are:







Congrats, Kari and Scarlet! E-mail me so I can get you details on how to redeem your prize.

Also, I'm going to leave it 20% for one extra day. So, if you didn't pick up Merriment yet and want it, grab it before 10 pm MST tonight while it's still on sale.

new kit and a LOT of holiday printables

Is it too early to think about Christmas? I don't think so. I like to start early so that once we get into the full-blown season I have time to enjoy it more. I have a new digital kit out today that coordinates with the Christmas Treasures freebie from my post yesterday. It's called Merriment.



You can save 20% on it through Sunday! I'm also giving one away... check the post just below this one to enter. I'll draw a winner first thing Monday.

Krista of Sahlin Studio and I have teamed up again to create these holiday printables. There is a huge assortment here that are already done for you. They are all ready-to-print to make the holidays just a bit easier!



The bundle is the best deal, but if you are interested in just some of the printables, you can also buy them individually in my shop.