Little Mermaids {Waffle Flower guesting}

Hi there!

I'm here and on the Waffle Flower blog this morning, with a set of fun cards featuring Little Mermaids.

My first card combines Little Mermaids with Birthday Fishes.



The little fish checking out the fish balloon cracks me right up.

My next card shows off both monkey mermaids. The one on the left is sporting a hair jewel that I thought was a perfect match for the swooping edges of the Doily Square Die. Especially when I colored in the little pink drops. They look like jewels all around the die-cut frame!



I hope you have a pearl-fect day! Thanks for stopping by!

♥.

cookie exchange 2014

It's time to show off our annual Christmas cookie exchange party!



Our group changes houses every year, to give a turn to a new hostess. This year's party was held at my friend Chantalle's beautiful house.  When I got there, she had the basic decoration done, and I helped her tweak the placement of the cookies and added the cookie labels I made on her request. We love to make it as pretty as it is tasty. I love that about this group of girls!

She set us up around the table - a grown-up tea party with so many yummy cookies to sample.

Everyone outdid themselves this year!



For the cookie labels, I used a simple, classic waffleflower frame and gold embossed it. In the same set, I found the little leaf&berry image, which I also gold-embossed for a simple accent.

These chewy gingerbread cookies with candied ginger on top were my fave. Warm and spicy, and everything you want out of a holiday cookie.





I made the caramel thumbprint cookies. When I spied them on Pinterest, I had to try out the recipe. The caramel in the middle was so gooey and delicious!

We had such a fantastic time together!

I hope you've enjoyed checking out this year's cookie exchange. You might like to look back at our past parties:

A woodsy cookie exchange, xmas 2013

A traditional cookie exchange xmas 2012

♥.

santa gift-card holders {waffle flower guest designing}

Hi there! I'm back with another Santa-themed project, using Waffle Flower's Surface Tag Die Santa Add-On.

If you missed the Santa bookmarks I created, you can check them out *here*

I knew as soon as I got these dies in the mail, that I wanted to make a felt project:



I created a couple of gift-card holders - perfect for gifting out to teachers for the holidays.

The how-to is very simple.  I cut a few felt circles, added the Santa pieces on top, and sewed all but the top closed, with an opening big enough to accommodate a gift card.

If you look at these dies, you'll notice that the "belt" piece isn't long enough to span the entire width of the circle. I cut 2 of them, and you can't even see the seam behind the buckle.  Also, when you cut the beard, you'll want to only cut the tip of the beard and then hand-cut the rest so it works with the curve of the circle.

I think it looks so cute hanging from the garland! It makes me think that you could easily stuff and completely sew up the circles and you'd have an adorable ornament for your tree!

For now, though, I am thinking ahead to teacher gifts. I hate giving them things like chocolates or bath products. It feels like they must get a ton of those! I always stress about what kind of gift card to give them. Starbucks? (but what if they don't drink coffee?) Target? (what if they don't shop there?)

What do you usually gift to your kids' teachers? And, if you give a gift card and you don't mind sharing, how much do you give? I hate to admit it, but I'm cheap by nature. I'm trying hard to learn to be more generous. Help a friend out, hee hee.



A huge thank you to my friend Nina for letting me guest design for Waffle Flower this month! It was so fun to work with these products!

♥.

Santa bookmarks {Waffle Flower guest designing}

I'm so excited to be guest designing for my friend Nina at Waffle Flower this week!  They are doing a 12 days of gift giving, and I'm up on day 4.  I've loved everything so far, and I hope you like what I've created as well.

I made a trio of Santa bookmarks, perfect for gift-giving with a book for Christmas.  My kids gave them huge thumbs up.  Aren't they cute?

I used all Waffle Flower dies to create these bookmarks, and I even made a full step-by-step picture tutorial.  It's on the Waffle Flower blog this morning - click!

I hope you like them! Follow the Waffle Flower blog so you don't miss a day of guest posts to kickstart your holiday gift-giving!

♥.