Homemade Holiday Blog Hop

Hello and Welcome to the Handmade Holiday blog hop! I am so happy to have you stop by my humble little blog! If you did not arrive to my blog from the uber talented Becky's blog please return to Amanda's blog to follow the hop in order so that you don't miss any wonderful inspiration from the amazing ladies participating with me!

This year is our second year doing a homemade Christmas in my family.  It is something we started last year because we decided to take a family vacation to Jamaica over Christmas and it was done in an effort to save a little money.  It ended up being one of my favorite Christmases!  I do come from a crafty family so all of the gifts were super creative and had such heartfelt meaning!  So much so, that we decided to do it again this year and this blog hop is perfect with that goal!  We were challenge by Amanda to create a handmade project using our scrappy stash or tools.  It can be a gift, home decor item, food/recipe that somehow uses our scrappy items.

So for this blog hop, I had hard a bit of a hard time because all of the projects I am working on have to be kept under wraps until I can give them to their new owners at Christmas!  So I had to come up with an idea just for this blog and something that will be just for me!  I have always had a fascination with Christmas candy.  I think it's because it reminds me of my beloved Grandmother.  I remember bowls and bowls of candy all over her house at Christmas, especially ribbon candy!  I went through my stash of ribbons and looked for a bunch of striped short pieces of ribbon that I could use to make my own ribbon candy ornaments. 

Using some fishing line and pearl beads I got at my local dollar store I stung together these super cute ornaments for my Christmas tree! I love them! I am actually thinking that I might make a garland or swags for my tree when I have more time and can get some pretty ribbon on sale in large enough quantities to go around my tree!

And now you have your chance to win! I am doing a giveaway to one of you. Simply comment on this post and become a follower. I will do a random draw on Monday morning for all the materials you need to make one of these adorable ornaments and maybe I'll even throw in one I made; make sure to check back then to see if you won.

Now for the next stop on your blog hop, please head on over to very funny and super talented Shanon!

Supplies: Embellishments: Ribbons, Pearls, and Fishing Line.

Field of Dreams

This post is kind of a continuation of yesterdays post with more photos from our anniversary photo shoot. All of these photos were taken in one of my works canola fields. I love the bright yellow of all the canola flowers and how it pops against the bright blue sky!

I had to enlist the help of my dear scrappy friend to help me narrow down which of the many photos I should use on my layout. Thanks Haley!

I really liked the demask patterned paper but I found a little bit much for this layout but I still wanted to use it.  I didn't like it just as a strip because not matter where you cut it in the pattern you were cutting away parts of the design.  I'm not one for fussy cutting but I found it came in useful in helping me to incorporate it on this layout simply without over powering it.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Authentique - Blissful Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and Dooblebug Alphas; Embellishments: Twine, 7 Gypsies - 97% Complete Stickers, Buttons, Authentique - Blissful Die Cut Words, and Ribbon; Inks:Colorbox Chalk Ink; Sketch: ; Tools: .

You Make Life Blissful

For our anniversary this year I told my hubby that I wanted us to have our pictures taken seeing as we hadn't had any nice ones taken since our wedding 11 years ago. He granted my request being the sweety that he is and I got some new photos to frame and scrapbook. These were actually taken at my work which from certain angles made for a beautiful backdrop!

I thought this paper line worked beautifully with the photos. 

Supplies: Patterned Paper:Authentique - Blissful Collection ; Embellishments: Ribbon, Buttons and Authentique Die Cut Words; Inks: Colorbox Chalk Ink; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking.

Happy Happy B-Day

One of the reasons I make cards is cause they are always there for me when I am caught in a bind where I forgot about a birthday and need a card in 10 minutes!  And true to form I needed a card quick the other day.  I went through my scrap bin and picked out some matching bits and pieces.  It went together quickly and I topped it off with some sequins and I was done!  Cute, quick and easy ... that is why I make cards!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Close To My Heart Paper Scraps; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: Basic Grey Alpha Stickers and American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Sequins; Tools: EK Success Notebook Edge Punch.

WFL Golf Day

How do you feel about using acronyms on layouts?  The company I work for has a really long name Western Feedlots Ltd but everyone uses WFL as an abbreviation.  Of course this is only used among those who work there and too me it's instantly recognizable so I used it on this layout.  After I finished the layout though, I started to wonder if using the abbreviation was wise on a layout.  Anyone perusing my scrapbook or this blog for that matter would have not idea what WFL stood for.  So, I'm curious, what would you do?

Supplies: Patterned Paper: American Crafts - Night Fall Collection and Basic Grey - Wisteria Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Basic Grey - Indian Summer Woolies and Pink Paislee - Fetching Petals ; Inks: Colorbox Chalk Ink; Sketch: ; Tools: Creative Memories Corner Rounder and Dymo Label Maker.