Day 11 of Little Yellow Bicycle's 12 Days of Christmas!

Yay! Finally I get to share the projects I created for Little Yellow Bicycle!!

We, the "Once Upon a Christmas" Cycling Team are doing the "12 Days of Christmas" and I was assigned Day 11. I've created 4 projects with the awesome "Once Upon a Christmas" collection; this collection is so so adorable, I just couldn't choose what to make and decided I would make as much as I could.

I started with this photo tray, a bargain I found at a local garden centre (Intratuin).

As soon as I saw the entire Once Upon a Christmas collection I knew I wanted to decorate a photo tray. The reason is the huge number of gorgeous embellishments that come with this collection. I just wanted to use them all and what is a better way than using them for a photo tray?! To create some depth I adhered photos and embellishments both in the tray and on the frame.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to create the snowflakes on the roof, the snowflake below and the word "Christmas" in the middle.

Once Upon a Christmas supplies:
- Poinsettia / Multi Starlight (OC-102)
- Holly Berry / Green Carols (OC-111)
- Merry Christmas / Red Damask (OC-110)

- Snowflake Plaid / Cream Houndstooth (OC-109)

- Mistletoe Stripe / Green Starlight (OC-105)

- Vintage Santa / Brown Houndstooth (OC-108)

- Snowflake Medallion / Red Houndstooth (OC-106)

- Journaling Cards (OC-134)

- Fabric Favorites (OC-220)
- Clear Cuts Shapes (OC-230)
- Tags & String (OC-132)
- Paper Crafting Kit (OC-305)
- Stick Pins (OC-277)
- Chipboard Shapes (OC-279)
- Cardstock Stickers Favorite Pieces (OC-135)
- Vellum Tape Strips (OC-160)
- Clear Stickers Cardmaking (OC-190)
- Cardstock Stickers Fresh Verse (OC-140) 

Then I created two layouts of which this is the first:

Two of my kids don't mind posing for me when I grab my camera, but the third always runs and hides! So, although the photo on the right isn't exactly perfect, it's very dear to me as it shows all of my kids happily decorating the tree! 

How I love all the embellishments, like the stick pins, the chipboard shapes and the transparant shapes!

Once Upon a Christmas supplies:

- Poinsettia / Multi Starlight (OC-102)
- Holly Berry / Green Carols (OC-111)

- Holly Bird / Brown Carols (OC-107)

- Clear Cuts Shapes (OC-230)
- Tags & String (OC-132)
- Paper Crafting Kit (OC-305)
- Stick Pins (OC-277)
- Chipboard Shapes (OC-279)

Then the second layout "Merry Christmas": For this layout I created a collage of some of the photos I made of all the ornaments hanging in our tree. We have this little tradition: when we go on vacation abroad we buy an ornament for our tree. For example: in this collage you'll see a cable car from San Francisco, a yellow cab from New York, the Eiffel Tour from Paris, etc. And then of course, we have a lot of handmade ornaments and I included a few of those as well. 

and a few close-ups:

Once Upon a Christmas supplies:

- Poinsettia / Multi Starlight (OC-102)

- Snowflake Plaid / Cream Houndstooth (OC-109)

- Vintage Santa / Brown Houndstooth (OC-108)

- Let it Snow / Green Medallion (OC-104)

- Journaling Cards (OC-134)

- Fabric Favorites (OC-220)
- Clear Cuts Shapes (OC-230)
- Tags & String (OC-132)
- Paper Crafting Kit (OC-305)
- Chipboard Shapes (OC-279)
- Vellum Tape Strips (OC-160)

Then last but not least, I created a card:

When I create cards I love to add lots of layers! With this card I started with the base, then added two different papers on top followed by a doily (my own stash), another piece of paper, a journaling card, a snowflake (cut with the Silhouette Cameo) and finally the tag with the sentiment. Add a little machine stitching and your card is finished!

Supplies:

- Snowflake Plaid / Cream Houndstooth (OC-109)

- Mistletoe Stripe / Green Starlight (OC-105)

- Vintage Santa / Brown Houndstooth (OC-108)

- Snowflake Medallion / Red Houndstooth (OC-106)

- Journaling Cards (OC-134)

- Fabric Favorites (OC-220)

And these were my projects! Hope you've enjoyed them!

Thank you so very much Little Yellow Bicycle, for having me on the Once Upon a Christmas Cycling Team! I had the best time ever!! 

Hugs,
Monique

{ 3 Generations }

For December 1st the challenge at "Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge" is to scrap your "generation" photos. For me this is the perfect challenge right now, as a few months ago I inherited books and boxes full of my mum's old childhood photos.

For my page I chose this photo of her, with her mum and the mother of my grandfather.

For my page I used the wonderful Crate Paper collection "On Trend".

If you've got a "generations" photo as well why not play along? You've got the whole month of December to join us for this challenge.

Thanks for visiting my blog today!
Hugs,

Two "My Little Shoebox" cards

The first card I made was for the November 2012 Newsletter. It's a card made to show some of the awesome Silhouette images MLS has. I've used the mushrooms from the Oh Deer! collection and the bicycle and clouds from the Happy Go Lucky collection. If you want to see all of the Silhouette images MLS has, just take a minute to visit the Silhouette online store!

And then my second card.... this one was made for the "Decorative Punches Week": to show how well the My Little Shoebox collections go with (border) punches:

For my punch inspired project, I used the Oh, Deer! collection and two border punches from Fiskars: Grass Border Punch and a 2-in-1 Corner & Border Punch (Wave). 

If you want to see more punch inspired projects just hop over to the MLS blog!! 

Well, this is it for me today! Hope you're having a fabulous weekend!

Thanks for stopping by again. 

Hugs,

Quick Doodlebug Xmas Tutorial!

Hello everyone! Today it's time for a Doodlebug Christmas Tutorial!

I don't know about you, but in November and December I'm always terribly busy and although I would love to create some handmade Christmas cards or ornaments very often I just don't have the time!

Last year I decided that this year it would be different! I was going to start early and create handmade Christmas cards for my family and friends and create some decorations for our tree.... BUT .... of course I totally forgot about my resolution and didn't start early at all!

Because I still want to create some homemade cards and decorations, I decided on this super quick AND fun technique:

1. Gather your supplies: one sheet of doublesided Christmas paper (I used "Holliday Tweet" from Santa's Workshop) and a circle cutter.

2. Cut 4 circles of different sizes:

3. Fold them once:

4. Fold them twice:

5. Fold them a third time:

6. They should look like this:

7. Adhere them to a card (I added a glue dot in the middle of the fold so the circle would stay open too wide):

8. Stitch allong all 4 sides of the card, add a sentiment and a little sticker to the top of the tree and you're done!! Easy Peasy!

But, wait there's more! I said cards and ornaments ... and this technique is easily translated from a card to an ornament, look:

1. Punch the same 4 circles and fold them the exact way as you did above:

2. Instead of adhering them to paper, you simply string a piece of Doodle Twine through them and then you'll have this:

That's it!! Easy Peasy!

Hope you like it!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Santa's Workshop, North Pole and Petit Prints; Cardstock Stickers: Icons from Santa's Workshop and Doodles "Merry Christmas".

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!
Hugs,

We love APPLE!

A few weeks ago I finally decided to order this fabulous collection from ColorConspiracy. I had seen so many great layouts on the blogs of Lilith and Marinette that I just had to have them myself!

This collection is called "Every Day", but there are many more! Just have a look at the ColorConspiracy site!

The photos were taken in the Apple store in Barcelona. Every time we happen upon an iCentre the kids just have to go in and play and admire everything that is sold there. So if you would look at the Fall holidays photos from last year when we were in New York, you would see almost identical photos!

And a few close-ups:

What a pleasure it was to work with this collection! I had matching papers, stickers with the names of the  months and days, die cuts, journaling tags, an overlay and 2 magnets. The words "love" and "enjoy" were cut with my Cameo. And I used my sewing machine, of course :) !

Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Hugs,

{ Traditions }

Today the theme at Doodlebug's blog is "Traditions". Well, that's easy enough, there are so many traditions to scrap about! Because I wanted to use the Haunted Manor collection (love this collection!) I chose to scrap about "St. Maarten". Although St. Maarten is not really a "spooky" tradition I think the papers & stickers are perfect for these photos.

For those of you who are not familiar with "St. Maarten", it's a tradition we have in The Netherlands. It's a bit similar to Halloween: in the evening of November 11, children carrying lanterns, ring the bells of neighbouring houses, sing a song and get sweets in return.

And the customary close-ups:

Supplies: patterned paper, Doodle twine, jewels, frames cardstock stickers, cute cuts all from the Halloween collection "Haunted Manor", Teensy Type (beetle black) and Fancy Frills (tangerine).

For more inspiration please visit Doodlebug's blog!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!
Hugs,