Fresh and Renewed with Teresa

Christmas Blog Hop

Sunday, December 9, 2012 // 22 comments

I have the privilege of being in this awesome Christmas blog hop with Ashley over at The Blog Hop Princess and I have created a really cute project for someone special. There is going to be some wonderful talent in this hop so make sure you go to each blog and see what is there for you!

Here we go again! I am getting my craft on this season! And it feels so good! I have all these wonderful ideas running around in this head of mine and keep seeing more to add to them. I wanted to buy my granddaughter a pink Christmas tree and ornaments for her bedroom but the funds were just not there for me to do that. Well, it pays to have been a scrapbook hoarder...oh I mean collector...over the past several years. I saw this adorable ribbon tree...on Pinterest of course! So, I went to the craft supplies and low and behold I had everything I needed to make this for her and it even goes with the wreath I made her for her bedroom door. You can see her wreath here.

For the ribbon tree you need lots and lots of ribbon...You can use all the same width or you can vary it like I did. You need to cut the ribbon in 4" strips. I made a cardstock measuring instrument and used it to wrap my ribbon around it and then cut both ends so I could cut lots of 4" strips at a time.

Then, you hot glue the ends together and put a dab of hot glue on the other side and adhere it to your cone. Stagger the ribbons as you go up the cone so you are covering up any of the styrofoam that may show through. Once you get to the top you can wrap a ribbon around the top...I happened to have this fancy trim so I wrapped that around several times hot gluing as I went...(I am surprised I did not burn my fingers). Then I pulled some 3D flowers out of my scrapbooking stash in the color scheme and pinned them to the top. My granddaughter is going to absolutely love this!

It looks like it is leaning but it is straight I promise!

You should have come here from the very talented Cindy...if you didn't you might want to start at the beginning over here...and after reading, seeing, and commenting (I love comments!) you can hop on over to Paula and see what inspired her for Christmas.

Here is the whole lineup for the blog hop just in case you need it!

Ashley - http://thebloghopprincess.blogspot.com 

Marji - http://www.fstampaholic.blogspot.com/ 

Beth-  http://motherandaughterdesigns.blogspot.com/

Cindy- http://www.cindys-greencricut.blogspot.com/

Teresa- http://freshandrenewed.blogspot.com/

Paula - http://preciouspagesbypaula.blogspot.com/

An'Jenic-http://anjenicgibson.blogspot.com/

Sandy - http://simplycraftycreationsbysandys.blogspot.com/

Sam-  http://scrappingwithpirkie.blogspot.com/

Elaine - http://ExpressionsByElaine.blogspot.com

Christine- http://hotberrydesigns.blogspot.com/

Amanda - http://a-prata-design.blogspot.com

Liz Mullen- http://scrapiliciouslife.blogspot.com

Jearise - http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com

Anita~  http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com  

My Cricut Craft Room Festive Friday

Friday, December 7, 2012 // 7 comments

I am sooo into the Christmas spirit. Everything around my house is decorated, music playing, Christmas baking smells filling the air, and there is more to come. I am happy to share today this cute and simple project.

So over at My Cricut Craft Room the theme for today is Gingerbread. So check it out to see everyone's post using various takes on gingerbread.

I cut 2 Gingerbread men from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge...this is my favorite gingerbread man cut! I designed them on my Gypsy and cut at 4.06." I cut the background image because I did not want the face and line details on him. I then used my Viva Decor pens to put on the details. Simple...it took me about 8 minutes. He is going to be the tags for these cute little ceramic dishes you see in the picture. I am making mini gingerbread loaves to send off to my dad in his homemade package for Christmas. Check back next Monday and I will share all the contents of his awesome package!

Day 12 (Last One!) of the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop

Wednesday, December 5, 2012 // 16 comments

I am soo very sad to see this blog hop end. Why you may ask? Cause a blog hop of this magnitude is certainly lots of work. Well here is my answer!! There are several reasons...

Our fabulous hostess Lisa Tehonica Pontious over at Honey Bearz Designs has done an amazing job organizing all of this for us to enjoy. Kudos to you Lisa!!!
There have been an amazing group of ladies in this hop. Their talent is phenomenal.
It got me motivated to create! And, helped me step out of the box to try new techniques.
I am not ready to be finished!! I have so much more I still need to do. Lots of my Christmas presents this year include tags or homemade little touches to go along with them and I have not finished.
I still have decorating to do!

So because of #4 and #5 above I will be extending this myself for the rest of the month. Maybe not daily but I will continue to post all of my wonderful creations through the rest of the month.

For today's project I was browsing last night...either on Pinterest or the net and saw an adorable Christmas owl...well that inspired today's project.

I used this cute Christmas owl from the Winter Wonderland cartridge and made him all in Christmas colors. I cut designed him on my Gypsy and cut him at 4.41". I typically do not like to use this color for my card base but felt like it went well with all the patterns. I then used a small sentiment to stamp "Merry Christmas" in Close to My Heart chocolate ink.

Instead of trying to cut the tiny little pieces for his legs, nose and the tip of his hat...I used Stickles.

I want to thank all the wonderful gals that have taken the time to follow me and comment on all of my projects over the last 12 days. Several of you had some questions and such along the postings, I will be answering those in a post later this week so if you were one of those come on back! And now on to my surprise! I will be randomly choosing a day. Then, from that day randomly choosing a comment and sending out a surprise Christmas assortment of scrapbooking supplies. So, you see it is very beneficial to comment on each day!!

And if you made it to the end of this long winded post I will have some updates in a couple of the threads for you tomorrow as I finish up decorating 3 areas with items created for this blog hop so tune in tomorrow for the finale on Day 10 and 11 and 2 more little areas that I plan to decorate today.

Blog Hop Business: Make sure you check on over at HoneyBearz Designs for the whole lineup and to see today's sponsor and prize package. Also Lisa is given away some prizes at the FB group...for the whole hop. You can find that here. And last but not least check out the wonderful creation that Madge has for you today! See you tomorrow~

Day 11 of the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop

Tuesday, December 4, 2012 // 16 comments

Boy, have I learned some lessons during this blog hop. If I am fortunate enough to be in this hop next year I will start in January creating my projects!! Or at least in September! I have absolutely had a blast though. I sure hope all of you have gotten some inspiration from the past few days. I know I sure have!

Today's project came right off Pinterest! My favorite place!

Overall view

Top View

Closeup View

For today's project I made a centerpiece for my table. I used redline tape to secure to the candles and then poured glitter on the tape. The candles were a mess so I used a paint brush to brush away the excess glitter. I then had some styrofoam balls that I slathered in glue (with my finger...that was the easiest way) and then rolled them in glitter. Last, I arranged them on the acrylic tray. I got that at WalMart over by the cake decorating stuff. As a final touch I also arranged these little gems I spotted on the end cap at WalMart. They were $2.97 but the perfect touch for the tray.

I think it might need something else...a cloth to put on the bottom? paint Merry Christmas on the edges of the tray? or paint a design? tell me what you think!

Now, I need to go clean my scrapbook room! It looks like a glitter bomb went off in there! Make sure you comment each day a surprise is headed your way tomorrow!

Blog Hop Business: Make sure you check on over at HoneyBearz Designs for the whole lineup and to see today's sponsor and prize package. Also Lisa is given away some prizes at the FB group...for the whole hop. You can find that here. And last but not least check out the wonderful creation that Madge has for you today! See you tomorrow~

Day 10 of 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop

Monday, December 3, 2012 // 17 comments

Whew! I have no clue how I ever found the time to work!! I have been running like crazy lately and it still seems like nothing ever gets off my plate. I am loving being home this time of year though! Would not have it any other way. And of course I am absolutely loving this blog hop. So wish I had more hours in the day cause I would be crafting sooo much more and showing you lots of other stuff. So many ideas spinning around in my head.

Today's project is super duper simple. I used my friend's Gypsy for the Christmas tree cut cause I did not have the right shaped tree. I am sorry but I do not remember the cartridge I used. Then, I used George for the star. I cut 5 trees and 5 stars. I plan to decorate an area of my house I have never decorated before. I have to get the ladder out to put them up so I will do that a bit later and come back and post the final picture with them all hanging. Anyhow, here is the Christmas tree and the star. I cannot wait to see this all pulled together. Thanks for taking the time to look. Remember to comment on each day cause it will definitely be worth your while. I have a surprise in store for you!

Blog Hop Business: Make sure you check on over at HoneyBearz Designs for the whole lineup and to see today's sponsor and prize package. Also Lisa is given away some prizes at the FB group...for the whole hop. You can find that here. And last but not least check out the wonderful creation that Madge has for you today! See you tomorrow~

Day 9 of the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop

Sunday, December 2, 2012 // 19 comments

I want to apologize right off the bat ladies. I have used up all my items I had made ahead of time and I had a super, super busy past 2 days...yard sale Friday and Saturday, kept 2 of my grandsons Friday evening for parents to go out, then took granddaughter to the annual production of the local dance company's Nutcracker last night. So I have to show you today 2 areas of my house all decorated for Christmas. Again, I am so sorry I do not have an actual project to show you.

First up is my most favorite area of my house. It is one of the plant shelves in the living room. I absolutely love the decor of this area.

Next is my beautiful tree. I got this tree at an awesome price after Christmas one year. I was testing last night how to take those twinkling light tree pics with my camera. One of my new goals for 2013 will be to finally learn how to use my camera better.

My Cricut Craft Room 100 Cartridge Blog Hop

Saturday, December 1, 2012 // 15 comments

For the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop click here.

I am also excited to share with you today several different projects I made for the 100 cartridge blog hop over at My Cricut Craft Room where I am on the Design Team. There is some amazing talent going on here this weekend. I hope it inspires you to get your craft on today or tomorrow!

Project 1: I used the Snow Friends cartridge to make this really cute snowman to be the center of attention on this wreath for my granddaughter's bedroom door. I cut the snowman at 7" so he was big enough for the center of the wreath. I also color coordinated the color of his attire to the colors in my ribbon.

Project 2. I plan to cut tags for one main present of each person in my family this year. I started with my daughter and daughter-in-law. I used Forever Young and chose 2 of the silhouette of the girls and red and green for their attire. I then made tags to mount each lady on. I made the ladies at 5.89" on my Gypsy. I realized I made the tags a bit large, but, thank goodness both of these tags are going onto some large packages.

Project 3: My oldest daughter's name is Holly. At Christmas time she totally gets into the fact that her name is so popular at Christmas. Maybe I had something to do with that though. heehee. She wants holly everything. I started when she was quite young wrapping her presents in holly paper, putting holly on her packages and so forth. So I used the holly image on Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons cartridge as a package decoration for one of her presents. I cut it at 4.71" again using my Gypsy.

Project 4: This was a super simple project for me. I received this tri-fold Christmas decoration in a swap a couple of years ago. It has been sitting in my craft room just waiting to be used. I am decorating my hutch differently this year and have been scrounging around the house to find things to use. When I saw this I knew exactly what I could do. I used Ashlyn's Alphabet (one of my favorite font cartridges) and cut out the word JOY and adhered a letter to each panel. It is going to look absolutely adorable on my hutch!