Walking in the Winter Wonderland.... (our house covered in snowflakes, and sharing our annual Christmas card)

Hey all! It's been pretty quite online, and I myself have been busy as well!  Since I got just a bit of free time, I thought that I'd share some of my 'personal' side with all of ya today! (Oh, how lucky you are!)

First of all, I've been busy planning out for two parties that I'm hosting this week. One was yesterday and that was the BIG one (for my hubby's staff Christmas party), so I'm now pretty much stress free! There was about 35 people that my mom and I had to cook up for!  Still don't know how I did it, but everyone had a good time! My hubby dressed up as Santa, and we managed to get gifts for all the kids (17 kids!) and they were ecstatic to see "Santa".  The other one I'm hosting is for tomorrow night, where I host my family for a cozy, warm Christmas celebration. 

So - I decided to make my house "Winter Wonderland" and cut tons of snowflakes and hang them up all over the main floor.  I put my machines to work and managed to cut about 150 snowflakes.  I really wanted to cut more and totally go all out - and decorate like that toy department from the movie 'Elf.'  However, it's still really pretty and I love looking at all the snowflakes!

I'll share some pics with you!



Isn't it pretty??? and here's our tree!







































I didn't do anything to these snowflakes - just cut them out and hung it with fishing line. So easy but so beautiful!



Here's my little gallery of my Christmas projects!





Oh, and as I was decorating with these snowflakes, my dad just took a scissor and several pieces of paper, and whipped these up!



Isn't he talented? If I had his cutting talents, I wouldn't need a cutting machine! lol...

Second of all - I thought that I'd share our annual Christmas card with ya all!

For those that know me, I usually make about 120 cards every Christmas.  It's a big project in its own, and I stay up until 2am every night trying to get them done.  I really wanted to cut back the time and effort, so I tried to cut the number of people I'd send them to... and I did, but then I ended up adding some more, which in the end, worked out to pretty much the same number.  Then, since I got the Silhouette SD this year, thought I'd save time and do print and cut cards!  I guess it must've... but still having to print and cut 120 sheets was quite the task....

I've always wanted to have our family photos inside the windows of the house and somehow be able to open the card or slide the card, and what not... but again, without the Silhouette SD, it was impossible to do! There was no way to cut all the windows or to paste all our family pics inside each window!

This year - I found the exactly what I was looking for - it's a Card kit House from Lori Whitlock over at the Silhouette Digital Online Store. 



Then, I've been just loving Miss Tiina's graphics and papers, so I thought that I'd pick her Merry Little Holiday collection to create this card.  You can see the sets that I've used in my card - isn't it cute???









I also got shots of each one of us, edited in Adobe, and brought them over to the Silhouette Studio.

After all this - my card looked like this on the virtual mat:



...and when it's cut and assembled, it looks like this:



You can open the door, to reveal "The Azim's"



... and then you slide open the card to see our family!



Here's the back:



We also put together our annual Christmas letter that my hubby wrote... yes, he has his very own style, and friends and family actually think it's funny - so if you're up to reading it - here it is! (You can REALLY get to know my family, too!)



It is once again time for me to perform my melancholy duty of detailing the mundane events of our lives.  This letter is completely unremarkable.  Actually, it is painfully uninteresting.  You can still save yourself: Put down the letter and read no further!  That meant stop back there.  You are still reading.  This is your last chance.  Do you have a problem with authority?  Fine then, be that way.  You only have yourself to blame.

Amélie will turn 3 in January and is quite happy to hug and kiss anyone who will give her attention.  However, she is also a very loud and opinionated 2 year old who justifies every stance with “because.”  When that doesn’t work, she points her entire arm at me in dramatic fashion and says, “Daddy BAD!” (We don’t even use the word ‘bad’ at home, so where did she learn it?).  For Halloween she had a cupcake fairy costume, but she always says she was a “Princess…. paaancake.”  Oh well, close enough, until I imagined the cupcake on her head as a pancake instead, then I couldn’t hide my smile any longer.  Her current interests include fire safety (setting off fire alarms in restaurants, etc) and interior decorating (drawing on furniture and walls).  When asked, Amélie’s future aspiration is to have a bubble bath with Santa. 

This brings me to Amélie’s 4 year old partner in crime, Kai.  Kai’s lifetime goal is to have a bubble bath while wearing shoes.  Kai and Amélie make a little gruesome twosome whenever Adly is not home.  They will play, fight, boss each other around, but will always stay in the same room together. Kai has a very caring side and he tries to cheer his sister up when she is upset (which is bound to happen when you are loud and opinionated), or whisper the right answer to her when Thienly or I are upset with her.  Kai’s interests include modern dance with extensive bum-wiggling coupled with silly faces, and building surprisingly complex train tracks.

Both Kai and Amélie enjoy playing with Adly when he gets home from school.  Adly loves facilitating greater levels of troublemaking.  First he trained them to walk like zombies that make groaning sounds and come to eat you (rather embarrassing in public, but if anyone stops to stare, I just start doing it too),then he got them jumping all over the furniture pretending to be angry birds.  Adly told me this spring he wanted an iPad –when I told him it was too expensive, he told me, “I just need some technology!”  When I asked Adly what hew ould describe as his goal in life, he said it was to read this letter (Definite future problem with authority).  Well, he is still only 9, I have some time before he decides to take the family minivan on a joyride (woohoo!). 

Meanwhile Thienly, (still) 29, continues to stay at home with the kids.  It’s more manageable this year now that all the kids play together and keep each other busy, and Amélie is potty trained.  She (still) spends every spare moment on paper-crafting as a member of design teams and managing her blog, Mod Paperie.  We went on two vacations this year, one to LA and one to Seattle, and both times she met up with followers of her blog – she’s a celebrity!

These letters get easier to write the further you go, because everyone knows no one bothers to read an entire Christmas letter.  By now I ought to be able to write whatever I want!  The page looks full, so I think I can stop here.  No matter what type of year you’ve had, remember you cannot control the Christmas cards you receive – you can only choose not to read them. Take time to tell yourself how lucky you are.  We wish you a very happy holiday season and all the best in 2012.

Love,

Adrian,Thienly, Adly, Kai, and Amélie 

So... did you actually read the whole letter? Do you have a problem with authority? (Obviously, you need to read the letter to understand this)

Alright - gotta get going, and start prepping again...

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope that you get to spend quality time with family and friends :)

Oh, and I hope that you all get everything you want! ;)

But as long as you love me so... - My Thoughts Exactly project (and my annoucement...)

The weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go -
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Oh, I just love Christmas tunes - makes me feel so warm and cheerful inside! I just can't believe that Christmas is next weekend!  Eek!  Are you all done your shopping yet?  If not, maybe you should be out shopping rather than reading this??? Oh, alright - you're online shopping - that's my kinda style!

Anyway, today is my project day for My Thoughts Exactly...  AND...  I have an announcement to make...  this is going to be my LAST post as a part of the design team...  Yes, I know it's kinda crazy.  Why leave this wonderful team, right?  Awesome stamps, fantastic gals, and even fun stuff planned out for 2012.  It was a VERY difficult decision, but I guess somehow, I wanted to free up myself and be on the lookout for trying out something new...  and I don't know what that 'something new' is...  maybe I'll enter some challenges, maybe I'll apply for different DTs, or maybe I'll do nothing! lol...  Anyway, yes, I'm leaving - and that means that there's ONE more extra spot on the new DT team...  Good news for you, right?

Anyway, onto my project for today!

So, you've got that "Let it snow" music going through your head? 

Here's the last verse:

The fire is slowly dying,
And, my dear, we're still goodbye-ing,
But as long as you love me so -
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I thought that this was kind of fitting with my last project as a DT member and with their stamps - and decided to create a snowglobe.

 


You likey? I got the file from here and decided to embellish a little more to it.  The clear dome part that you see is "Clear Craft Plastic" sheets that I found at Michaels, and was cut through my Silhouette.



I added some trees, snowflakes from Holly Jolly Tags stamps, some crinkle ribbon, Caribbean twine from The Twinery for the scarf and tags, and snowlayer for the ground. I even made the snowman hold a heart - to kinda go with the lyrics :)



Isn't this a cute stamp? (and no, it's not "As long as you love me so..." that's my handwriting! lol...) It's from the Holly Jolly Phrases stamp set!

This file was really easy to put together - once you figured out which piece goes where! It's so cute - my kids love it!

Here's the look from the top - you can see how the pieces fit with one another.



If you wanna see these stamp sets, upclose - here it is:

Holly Jolly Tags:



Holly Jolly Phrases:



These are $15 each, but you can buy as a bundle, too - for $25!

Make sure that you go visit my fellow DT member - SugarGem for more inspiration with these stamps today!

So, yeah, this is it. I hope that all the My Thoughts Exactly fans still come and visit me! Thanks to Alyssa and Brian for having me as a part of your team. Good luck to you in 2012 and good luck to all those that has applied to their design team. You're gonna have lots of fun.

Every girl's bestfriend.

So, I'm finally finished my Christmas cards!!!! Yay!  I will be sharing that later in another post.

For today - thought that I would make a quick card with this adorable doll from last week's SVG Cuts' Christmas Morning collection.  I've always been a fan of doll die cuts, but when I saw this one, I fell in love, and had to play with it!

I also had a chance to plug in my Sizzix Eclips yesterday and cut this out with its SVG software, eCAL.  This machine is just so amazing - it sucked in my mat into the machine crazy fast and the cut is so smooth and clean!  I've really only cut this one thing out, so I cannot tell you any more right now, but I'll definitely be using this from now on!  I'm really happy with everything - I so recommend the Sizzix Eclips!  Thanks so much Leo and Mary!


Anyway, with this particular doll, I thought that it would be really cute to make 'hair' with twine!  I put tacky tape on the base and adhered twine on it! I love how it turned out!  The twine is from The Twinery - Lemondrop Yellow.

Okay, gonna keep this post short, so here's the card:



This sentiment is from Papertrey Ink - Signature Series: Cupcake. (Please don't look at my stitching... realized the bobbin wasn't inserted correctly - but this was the last piece of this paper, so couldn't chuck it :( The papers are from Crate Paper - Emma Shoppe for doll's dress, and background is from Neighborhood Collection)



It's really cute, isn't it?



Okay, that's it. I've got a project to make for this Thursday for My Thoughts Exactly - so I'll catch ya later!

Santa Sleigh - Unity Stamp Co. Challenge.

Hey everyone! 

I've totally working away (still... ) on my Christmas cards, but couldn't help but to take a break here and there to create something when I saw these challenges.  They are both from Unity Stamp Company (which I've ordered tons of stamps in the last little while!) and one is on their blog and one of them is right on their Facebook wall.  The prizes are just so amazing, and it also gave me a reason to play with their stamps a bit. If you've got Unity stamps, you've got to take a look... I'm sure you'd want to enter... actually don't take a look... it's taking away my chances of winning! lol... No, really, you should look - very generous prizes!

One was to create a Christmas project and the other was to create anything with snowflakes/snow using their stamps, so I thought that my project would be eligible for both!

I created a Santa Sleigh using the cuts from Santa's Visit SVG kit and Santa from Christmas Morning SVG Collection, and creating a little treat gift with it.



I've used the new Cosmo Cricket Dear Mr.Claus collection for this project - loving these papers! So classic and pretty!



This stamp was from Ornamental Season itty bitty.



Here's Santa waving "hello!" to you!



...and here's the focus of my project - aren't these ticket stamps just adorable? I colored them with my Copics :) They are from Ticket to Christmas itty bitty stamps. I embellished with wooden buttons, red hemp rope cord and burlap from Canvas Corp.



Inside sits a canvas draw string bag (canvas also from Canvas Corp) which I made! I filled it up with Lindt chocolate balls :) The tag is from Tis the Season for Joy (jillibean soup) set.



...and lastly but not least, I stamped the canvas bag with snowflakes with stamps from Snowflakes Fall from Heaven (jillibean soup) set.

I personally think that it's cute and goes really well with my streetlamp which sits in the background :)

Oh, I made a quick card with Ornamental Season stamps as well:



It's pretty simple, but I wanted the clean look for this. I colored the ornaments with Copics, but also stamped another same image onto the vellum and placed it on top of it :) I also jazzed it up with some rhinestones and crinkled ribbon as well..

Anyway, here's my two Unity Stamp Company submissions... wish me luck :)

Oh, and SVG Cuts is holding their first ever Winter challenge right on their FB wall, so hope that you go and join in on that one! I guess I could go and enter this project there as well! (jk!)

Alrighty - better get back to my card making!

Christmas Lantern Streetlamp - SVG Cuts DT project!

Hey all! It's been a while!

It's now December (eek! I'm so excited about this month!) and I'm underway making our annual Christmas cards.  I decided to not go all out this year...  and put on embellishments and such...  However, I am still using my cutting machine and my print and cut ability to do something unique...  I've not seen anyone do this before, so can't wait to show you! I'll definitely share when it's done! So, that is why I've been pretty much absent... as I work away in a Santa workshop trying to get the cards done (I'm making over 100 of them!) :)

However, while I was letting everything print out and getting it cut, I still had some time to work away on my next SVG Cuts project and I get to share it with you today! I'm so excited by the way this turned out - it's simple, but so magical and makes a pretty decor.  It's my mom's fave project of mine - she says!

Anyway, this project was actually inspired by Mary's idea to take the lantern from Crisp Days of Fall SVG Kit and turn it into a 'Christmas Carol'-like version...  So, the first thing that I did was to watch the movie trailer like 10 times, and picked out objects/styles that I can use for my project... 

I was so tempted to cut out and make a whole scene - cut out little shops and all... but then I realized that it would take away from the project to have it too busy (and more like, I'll never get that done!), so I kept it simple, yet enough details to look at...

Anyway, I know that you've been waiting patiently, so now, I'll show you finally! Here it is!!!

You like? Does it scream 'Christmas Carol' out to you?? I'm totally enjoying having this sit on top of a fireplace right now... so fun to look at!

I changed the flourish window on the original lantern and replaced it with the snowy windows from Spirits of Christmas Past SVG Kit. I printed the vellum yellow to add warmth :)



I used an empty roll (parchment roll) and used it as a post. I made an opening into the lantern and the base box (from Santa's Visit SVG Kit). I also used a wooden dowel through the empty roll so I can hang a sign using the stamp from Gingerbread Kisses.



The wreath is really easy - I just cut out some hollies? holly? and glued them onto the twig wreath I got from Michaels. I put a little bow at the bottom and voila - makes a pretty wreath in no time!



At the bottom of the post, I embellished it with a bike from Spirits of Christmas Past SVG Kit... and you're gonna love my last touch to my project!



I took a crate from Caramel Apple Pie SVG Kit and made a miniature one with it to hold Christmas parcels and letters. It cut really well for me, and I was surprised to see how sturdy it was.

I added the rest of the embellishments and I'm really happy with the way it turned out! I hope that you're inspired to make this for your Christmas dinner :)

If you are interested in full details of my project, go take a look at the SVG Cuts blog - it'll have all the files and dimensions there!.. and you can also leave me some love there, too! You know that I'd like that!

Oh, and one more thing - I have a winner from my last post... it is katknit!!! Congratulations - please contact me so I can get the gift card out to ya!

Oh, and another thing - don't forget to enter in for your daily chance to win the Sizzix Eclips - announced this Sunday - click here! and for you to enter in to win ALL stamp sets from Punkin' Patch Stamps - click here!

Alright - that's it for today! Have a crafty day - and thanks for stoppin' by!