DIY: Table Centerpiece - Decor For The Holidays

During the holiday season, I love to add a little something special to our dining room table. This season I wanted to add a D.I.Y. centerpiece. My inspiration for this project was my son's obsession with sticks. Yes, I said STICKS! He has been collecting sticks for awhile now and a few pine cones a long the way. He insists on bring every stick he finds home and we have compiled quite a collection. So, I asked him if I could use some of his sticks for a project I wanted create. He said, "YES". Hooray, now I could finally put those sticks we've been collecting to good use! Off I went to create something special for our table. What do you think? Cute, right...

Here is how I created the centerpiece. 

D.I.Y. TABLE DECOR CENTERPIECE

Supplies you will need for this centerpiece craft project: 
Pine cones
Sticks
Glitter spray paint
Clear Sealer spray
Glue gun
twine
Empty paper towel roll
Wrapping paper
Double sided tape
Scissors

GATHER YOUR SUPPLIES FOR THIS PROJECT.

SPRAY PAINT STICKS AND PINE CONES WITH GLITTER SPRAY PAINT. AFTER DRYING, SPRAY CLEAR SEALER TO PROTECT THE PINE CONES AND STICKS.

WHILE THE STICKS AND PINE CONES ARE DRYING - CUT PAPER ROLL DOWN THE CENTER.

WRAP THE ROLL IN PRETTY PAPER. I USED A BLACK AND WHITE DAMASK PATTERN WARPING PAPER. TAPE THE PAPER ON THE INSIDE OF THE ROLL.

ASSEMBLE THE STICKS BY HOT GLUING TOGETHER AND WRAPPING THE TWINE AROUND THE STICKS AT THE  INTERSECTING POINTS.

ASSEMBLE THE PINE CONES TO THE WRAPPED PAPER TOWEL ROLL BY HOT GLUING IN PLACE. THREAD THE RIBBON AROUND THE ROLL AND TIE A BOW.

VOILA! A HAND CRAFTED CENTERPIECE FOR YOUR DINING ROOM TABLE.

Thank you all for a great FIRST year! It has been amazing so far. I am looking forward to next year and I know it will be even better!  

Happy Holidays and have a great NEW YEAR!!

Dressing Up Your Table For The Holidays

Well, we are in the thick of the holiday season and I know that everyone is busy with all the merry and spirit of the season! It's the perfect time to start decorating those dinning room tables.

As I began to write this post, my youngest son is building another fort in our living room and he has enlisted me for help in building it, so I hope that I am able to share my thoughts with you before becoming his assistant builder. Back to my post...

I wanted to share some quick, simple and inexpensive tips for dressing up your dining room table for the holidays. I think when decorating for the holiday it should reflect your families sensibilities. My motto is: fun, simple, and cost effective is the way to go when dressing up your table!  Since I have young children, a no fuss decor is best for our home. A relaxed modern whimsical table scape is our style for this year.  

I am so proud of my boys and their art and craft projects they bring home. I will proudly display them every chance I get. I knew that their craft projects would have to be worked into the table design this year. A great rule of thumb to follow when setting a holiday table is to find items around your home you can use first before buying something new. For example, why not re-purpose a scrap piece of linen and some ribbon. Or in my case my son's craft work!

To dress up my dining room table for our Thanksgiving feast I looked around my home for things I could reuse. I found and old red and orange table cloth, tweed fabric and red ribbon.  Since the tweed fabric had frayed edges I did not want to show I used the red ribbon to cover them up and give a nice modern look to the newly designed table cloth. 

I  wanted to give the table some whimsy so I decorated the base of a cake stand and the napkins with tissue pom poms in shades of orange and used the boys Thanksgiving crafts around the table.  

I think we all want to impress our guest with a perfectly designed table, however, don't forget to have fun and put your own special touch on your table. Above all don't stress out about what other people think. Just remember, there is always next year.  

BACK TO THE FORT BUILDING! 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

Let's Build A Gingerbread House Together...

The craft bug flew into our house this week with a big gingerbread smile! I have always wanted to build and decorate a gingerbread house but left to my own devises, it would have to look and be decorated just right. The boys love to build things and so what better way to get in the holiday spirit than to build a gingerbread house. Fortunately for the boys, I took myself out of the equation and let them build and decorate it for themselves, as you will soon see!  It was so easy to assemble because of course we used a kit, the ones you buy at the grocery store.  So with very little help from me the boys made their very own gingerbread house that they are so proud to show off to anyone that comes to visit!

Getting ready for the project, all you need is a Gingerbread House making Kit you can buy at your local grocery store.

My little one eager to start build the house frame before his brother came home from school.

 Big brother gets in to the act and starts decorating. Sharing the duties as they go along. Amazingly peaceful project and they worked together to complete it to the best of there ability at the time. 

So there you have it! A boys craft project that delighted them for an afternoon. I hope you enjoyed this fun holiday craft and it inspired you to do something crafty with your family. 

Happy Holidays!

 

Working Wednesday/Sneak Peek ~ Hanukkah Collection

It has been a busy time here in the studio. I am working hard to pull together all the holiday collections for this season. Here is a sneak peek at my Hanukkah collection. There are two different card types available for you to choose from. This collection will be available in my shop by the end of the week.  

Announcment ~ November Giveaway Winner ~ My Memories Suite Digital Software

Before I announce the winner, I wanted to thank you for entering this fabulous Giveaway and also thank all my readers, friends and fans for your continued support. I am having so much fun designing on the My Memories Suites Software. I wanted to share my design creations with you. As a gift to you for your readership, please download this FREE PRINTABLE file. So without further ado, we have a winner which was selected by Random.org.
  And the WINNER IS: Bernadette - said... Great giveaway, Lisa! Such cute designs. My favorites were the Asian Spring ones.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about the My Memories Suite Software please visit MyMemories.com. Anyone interested in saving $10 OFF the My Memories Suite Software can use my Share The Memories code at check out and receive this savings.  

Just copy and past my Share The Memories code: STMMMS4099 

Visit: http://www.mymemories.com/digital_scrapbooking_software

 I hope everyone's Holiday season is full of happiness and peace. Thank you all and have a great week!

Working Wednesday/Sneak Peek ~ Holiday Collection

Good afternoon! I have been working on some designs for the holiday season. When the snowflake design challenge came up, I knew my little penguin design I had created earlier this year would fit right into this theme. Right of the bat, I wanted to incorporate the two designs to make a cohesive fun and fresh collection. Designing a collection of papers, cards and tags can be more versatile when decorating for the holidays, so I wanted to have these products available to you. Here is a little sneak peek to kick off the holiday spirit.

And a close up of the penguin/snowflake design. The penguin is holding a branch of holly. I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek.

 
This design Collection should be in my shop by the end of the week.


The November GIVEAWAY is still open. You could win the best selling scrapbook software around so click HERE to enter. 

Have a great Thanksgiving celebration. 

Fabulous Friday ~ November Giveaway ~ Digital Software

Okay, it's way past due for a GIVEAWAY here on my blog! Wait until you see what I am giving away! I am so thrilled to be able to offer such a great product to my readers, friends and fans! I think you will agree that creating fun and fabulous designs should not be a hassle. With MY MEMORIES SUITE SOFTWARE you can create all kinds of fabulous designs without the hassle of learning new software or buying expensive software. The great thing about it is if you want quick beautiful scrapbook pages there are so many wonderful designs to choose from. It is a BEST-SELLER and the #1 rated Digital Scrapbook Software. 

designed by HR Creative Design Studio on My Memories Suite Software

I had the privilege of test driving My Memories Suite software and can say that it was fun and user friendly. I whipped up some holiday gift tags in no time flat, see above design. if you love to scrapbook or if you love to create cards, calendars and more, you'll love this digital software. Now, thanks to My Memories Suite you have the opportunity to have this fabulous software for FREE! 

So, without further ado...Here is how to enter:

Mandatory Entry: Please visit www.MyMemories.com. and choose your favorite digital paper pack or layout, then come back to my blog and leave me a comment  telling me which ones you chose.

Extra Entries: 

Follow MY BLOG or Like me HERE on Facebook and come back and leave me a comment or if you already follow me and like me on FB, thank you and just leave me a comment saying so.

Follow My Memories Suite on Facebook: HERE come back and leave me a comment.
Follow My Memories Suite on Twitter: HERE come back and leave me a comment.

Follow My Memories Suite their blog: HERE come back and leave me a comment.

This giveaway ends on Monday, November 28th at midnight. I will be picking the winner randomly. So please check back to see if you won. 

Thank you and happy entering! 

 

Working Wednesday/Sneak Peek ~ Lego Inspired Theme Printable Party Collection

I am so excited to show you a sneak peek at my Lego inspired theme printable! Both my boys are crazy about Legos so when a client asked me to design a Birthday printable collection for her nephew I was so thrilled and of course went straight to work. I knew that I wanted anchor my design off the green base that come with the larger Lego sets from the store so I started building the design from there. It's a fun and playful design that I hope you will enjoy taking a sneak peek at my design party collection. 

I will be doing two posts this week! YEAH!. So, stay tuned because it is going to be a GIVEAWAY post that I think you will want to ENTER! More to come...

Working Wednesday/Being Thankful For The Little Things In Life!

As we near the end of the year I reflect on all that has happened up to this point. I am so thankful to be able to have an outlet in which to create and share my love of design. I am thankful for my readers, fans and friends for their support . Being thankful for the little things in life is just as important as for the BIG things in life. When I was designing my Thanksgiving collection for this year I thought about this concept and wanted to incorporate it into my design. I love the simplicity of it and my design reflects a sweetness about it.  Thank you all for your continued support and I hope you enjoy my new printable collection.

This collection is now available in my Shop.

Have a wonderful week!

Pumpkin People Craft Project

I love fall! It's a great time of year, so many fun and creative craft projects to explore. I admit that I am not the craftiest person on the block but I do my best to get my craft on once in a while.  I admire people who are crafty and sometimes I am inspired to do a project of my own.

 So, here you have it, my pumpkin people craft project I created with my boys. My son's picked out their own pumpkins and put the googly eyes on them. I think this would make a great holiday card.


My inspiration for creating the pumpkin people is another fall craft I came across using fall leafs. I love the way she portrayed her family using fall leafs. Check out this cool craft.

http://meetthedubiens.blogspot.com/2011/09/leaf-people.html

And, Happy crafting! 

Working Wednesday/Sneak Peek ~ Little Blue Engine Printable

Wow, it's November 2nd and Just a month until my youngest 4th Birthday.  He loves trains, so when my friend asked me to design a printable based on the Little Blue Engine, I jumped at the chance to come up with something fresh and fun for her little boy. I do not want to give it all away just yet, so here is a sneak peek.

I had so much fun designing this collection. I came up with another design for a personalized stationery set.  I am still putting the final touches on things so it is not yet in my shop but should be later this week.