Wishing you and your family the Merriest of Holidays!

Hip Hop Holiday Cheer Style!

Hello friends! Thanks for hopping with us today! Be sure and check the Unity blog for all the details about today's Hip Hop offerings. This Hop post is all about Holiday Cheer today...Did you spread some with handmade holiday cards this year? I made about 40 and I still wanted to send more but there is just no time so next week I'm gonna craft up some Happy New Year cards!

Today I am sharing some of my favorite past Unity holiday cards! Come take a look back at some of my Holiday Unity creations with me...

Red and Snowflakes
{Ippity snowflakes}

Warm Winter Wishes

{My little shoebox}

Winter Joy Peace Love

{My Little Shoebox}

And finally a real favorite of mine

Happy Holidays

{Ippity Snowflakes and Unity distressed hearts background}

Now it's time to head onto Thienly's blog! I bet she has something amazing to share!

Wishing you all the Merriest of Christmas!
Thank you for your kind words all year long.

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 18

Hello friends. It's Day 18 of my...

Today's card features my favorite sheet of paper from We R Memory Keepers Yuletide collection.

 Merry Everything

Supplies: Yuletide patterned paper and cardstock sticker; Sentiment: Simon say Stamp; Misc: ribbon. Finished Size 5 x 5.

I love the colors in the Yuletide collection. They are perfect for last minute cards. This card is another 5 minute card. I cut the cardstock at 5x5 and adhered to the card base. Then I tied the ribbon, cut a strip of coordinating cardstock and cut a flag at the end and adhered. I finished the card with a stamped sentiment and cardstock sticker.

I also created this fun wreath using a sheet of the die cut paper and some of the Yuletide cardstock stickers and fabric brads.

Here's a closer look at the holly sticker I embellished with fabric brads.

That's it for today friends. Have a great day!

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 17

Hello friends! It's a new week and a new day and time for another card! 

 

Card # 17 to be exact. Today's card is a fun little one I created with the Christmas Tree die from Lil Inker Designs. 

Have yourself a Merry little...

Supplies: Lil Inker Designs tree die, Bazzill basics cardstock, Cosmo Cricut music sentiment; Provo Craft embossing folder; Misc : Jingle Bell embellie and ribbon.

I love this tree die from Lil Inker Designs Holly Jolly Die Set! It's adorable and the Cosmo Cricket stamp was perfect for the sentiment.

That's it for today!

See tomorrow with another card.

SOTW Sunday and 25 Days of Holiday cards #16

Hello friends. It's Sunday and that means we're revealing another SOTW card. Is it really week 50 already?? This week's image is so adorable...

A cute lil owl friend all dressed for the season. I was easily able to make this week's image into a Holiday Card so here is card #16 for my

Hello There

Supplies: Paper Posies December kit. Papertrey Ink twine, Eyeley Outlet bling strips, Spellbinder dies and Washi tape. Finished size 5 x 6 1/2.

For more creative inspiration make sure you visit Unity's Stamp of the Week gallery. Now you only have one week to claim this cuteness for your own. So hurry over to this page to find out how you can sign up to have some Unity Happy Mail in your mailbox each week!

Have a creative Sunday!

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 15

Hello friends. Hope you are having a great weekend. I'm late posting card #15 for my...

Today's card was created with my December Paper Posies kit. As soon as I saw the sheet of Fancy Pants Reindeer paper I knew I wanted to use it as a holiday card.

Tis the Season

Supplies: Cardstock Bazzill Basics; Patterned paper Fancy Pants Reindeer; Offray ribbon; Fancy Pants Home for Christmas buttons; Misc: colors of bling. Finished size 5 x 6 1/2

For this card I cute the paper to fit the red cardstock and added bling to the flowers. Finished with ribbon and button.

Thanks for stiopping by to see my cards everyday. I really appreciate you spending some of your time here.

Have a great day!

The year where we got a REAL Christmas tree.

Yes it's true, Mat and I have had a fake tree through out our entire dating and married years. I just had my heart set on a REAL Christmas tree this year and we finally got one. I can tell you that one little girl in our family sure was excited.
Of course it would be nice if we could go out and cut one down like we used to do growing up in Atascadero (on the Central Coast). I loved going to the tree farm with my Dad. He let us pick out which one we wanted and then we watched him cut it down, load it in the back of his El Camino and set it up in our living room.
Living in the city the best option (and most affordable) for us was Home Depot. So off we all went to find our tree.
As soon as we walked into the lot it did not take long for us to find what we were looking for.

 

Lily loved this one so Mat pulled it out to take a look.

  

 Mat was pretty impressed that the first one he pulled was Smith family approved.

  

Lily could not believe this 8 to 9 ft tree so found on the lot. Too bad our ceilings and pocketbook could not accommodate it.

After we got the tree loaded onto the car, the best part was when Lily realized how we were going to get the tree home. Her priceless response "Mom it's a real tree and it's on our car!"

So we have a real Christmas tree in the Smith family home. I got so wrapped up in decorating the tree with the kids I forgot to snap some photos but I'll post some after pics soon.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you are all enjoying trimming your trees too!

Thanks for stopping by.

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 14

Hello friends. It's finally Friday and I don't know about you but I am ready for the weekend! It's day 14 of...

Today's card is created with some fun Eyelet Outlet brads and bling.

 Supplies: Patterned paper Basic Grey Aspen Frost. Eyelet Outlet tree brads, Eyelet Outlet pearl strips, Spellbinders die, stamped images Lil Inker designs. Finished size 4 x 5 1/2

This is another quick card if you're in a hurry. Cover the base with pattern paper. Cut second layer at 3 1/2 x 4 3/4 and round the corners, Adhere to base and add pearl strips. Use die cuts to layer and stamp sentiment. Use a paper piercer to poke the holes to adhere brads. Finish with stars.

That's it for today. 

We are excited to be visiting The Crystal Kingdon at the Queen Mary tomorrow. I'll be posting pictures of course. 

I hope you have an amazing weekend.

 

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 13

Hello friends. I hope you have been having a great week so far. Mine's been a bit busy with some home projects I have been working on and of course the holiday festivities. I love this time of year. There really is something in the air that feels different.

Ok...so it's day 13 of my...

 

Today's card is from We R Memory Keepers Yuletide collection.

Believe

 

Supplies: Patterned paper, chipboard sticker We r Memory Keepers Yuletide collection; Misc: red ribbon. Finished size 5 x 6 1/2

I love the colors in this collection. They are so happy and festive. This is a great last minute before you head to a holiday party card idea. I covered my card with the Houndstooth pattern paper and then framed it with the Dot. Next I embossed the Gingerbread and layered it to the base and added ribbon and the chipboard sentiment with 3D foam squares.

 Make sure you visit the We R Memory Keepers Facebook page for more inspiration with all their products!

Thanks for stopping by!

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 12

Hello friends. It's Day 12 of my...

Today's card is a little Parisian themed vintage lovely that I really enjoyed creating.

Joyeux Noel

 

Supplies: Stamped images: Cosmo Cricket Merry Little Christmas,Stampendeous Eiffel Noel; Recollections cardstock; Copic markers; Stickles crystal; Petaloo Chantilly collection Poinsettias.   

For this card I stamped the Merry Little Christmas music onto the gold cardstock. Then I stamped the Eiffel Noel stamp and layered it with red cardstock. I used Copic markers to color the image and added Stickles. To finish the card I glued the poinsettia to the stamped image.

I love how this card turned out but it's not the best for mailing unless you are sending a package or using a bubble wrap envelope.

That's it for today.

Thanks for stopping by.

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 11

Hello friends! It's Day 11 of my...

Today I am sharing a card created with We R Memory Keepers Winter Frost collection.

Season's Greetings

Supplies: Snow flurries patterned paper; Snowflake cardstock sticker; Snowflakes stamps; blue twine ; Spellbinders label die; Sentiment: Simon says Stamp Dec. Card kit.

I used a pre-made silver card base to stamp the snowflakes with white ink and then embossed them. Next I layered the label die and used 3D foam squares to pop it off the card base and tied the twine. I stamped the sentiment and affixed it with foam dots as well and finished the snowflake sticker with Recollections jewels.

Thanks for stopping by today!

 

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 10

Hello friends. It's Day 10 of my...

Today's card is another card I put together using Anna Griffin's Ultimate card making kit.

Joyful Holiday Wishes

I love the kraft with the traditional holiday colors in the background. 

Anna's elegant embellishments and papers make quick card making easy.

That's it for today friends. I just want to say thank you for leaving comments on the last 9 cards. I hope you are finding some inspiration for creating your own holiday cards.

Have a great day!

 

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 9

Hello friends. I hope you've all had a nice weekend so far. It's hard to believe there are only 16 days til Christmas. I have a rather large stack of holiday cards to go out in the mail this Monday. How about you?
So we're on to Day 9 of my...

This card was inspired by a card I spotted in Paper Crafts magazine created by my stamping idol Jen McGuire.

Merry and Bright

 

Supplies: Pink Paislee City Sidewalks; Martha Stewart snowflake punch; Lil Inker Designs Christmas Sentiments; Musical Flourish embossing folder; Papertrey Ink buttons and recollections bling. Finished size is A2 4 x 5 1/2

This is a great design for mass producing since the patterned paper is cut at 1 1/2 x 5 1/2. This card took me less than 5mins to create.

For more awesome inspiration from Jen McGuire, check out her design blog here.

That's it for today friends! 

Have a great Sunday.

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 8

Hello friends and happy Saturday! It's Day 8 of...

Today I am sharing another Anna Griffin card I made from her Ultimate Christmas Card making kit.

 These kits are loaded with amazing patterns and die cuts that are easy to coordinate and assemble in a matter of minutes. I love the elegance of this card and the fact that I put it together in under 3 minutes.

I love the holidays and Mat and I have been trying to give the kids as many holiday memories as possible by attending all of the fun festivities in our little community of El Segundo as well as the surrounding cities in LA.

Thursday we took my daycare baby and Lily down to see Santa at the El Segundo tree lighting festival.

 

 Lily was not afraid of Santa this year but Zalie would not go near him.

 

 Lily also got to meet Barbie. 

She was more impressed with her Barbie toy from Santa.

.  

 The girls did a little bowling too

  

Lily did great and thought it was pretty cool!

 

 Mat and Lily also had fun at the Christmas tree photo booth.

 

That's it for today. I hope you are doing some fun holiday events this weekend too!

Thanks for stopping by.

 

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 7

Hello friends. Welcome back for Day 7 of my...

 

Today's card is from the Simon Says Stamp Everything is Merry card kit.

 

 

Merry Everything

 

 

I stayed true to the original inspiration included in the kit but added the twine and bling.

 

Card kits are a great way to create several cards quickly.

 

This kit is still available for purchase at Simon Says Stamp and I must say I was impressed by their fast shipping!

 

That's it for today but before I go I want to acknowledge that today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. We will never forget all the brave men and women who were lost on this important day in our Nation's history.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 Have a fantastic weekend!

 

Hip Hop it's the Holidays!

Hello friends! Thanks for coming by today for Unity Hip Hop! I can't believe it's already to holidays can you? I hope you have enjoyed the hop so far. Make sure you start the hop over to Unity to find out how you can win some fabulous Unity rubber on our hop today. 

**If you've come by for my Oatmeal Cranberry cookie recipe from the We R Memory Keepers Facebook page just scroll down to the post after this one!

Now for the good stuff! Unity is having a spectacular sale all month long!

and if that wasn't good enough....Good December 6-12th!

Today I'm sharing another layout created with the November SMAK kit!

Ho Ho Santa

I thought it would be fun to create Christmas trees out of the pattern paper in my December Paper Posies kit. I also adore the Santa image and the calendars that come in the SMAK kit are so easy and fun to use with layouts and December daily's. This kit is perfect for your Dec. daily with all the images it includes.

Now it's time to head over to Thienly!

25 Days of Holiday Cards Day 6

Hello friends! Welcome back for Day 6 of my...

 

 

Today's card is from the new Yuletide collection from We R Memory Keepers.

 

Supplies: Patterned paper, die cut, fabric brads and cardstock sticker from the Yuletide collection. Finished size 6x6.

 

Directions: fold cardstock at 6x12. Cute woodgrain cardstock at 5 3/4 x 5 3/4. Adhere die cut with foam squares to center. Later cardstock sticker and finish with bow

I made this card to go with some baked goodies I like to give away during the holidays. Many of my friends and family enjoy my Oatmeal Cranberry cookies. So here's a photo of my treats and card on the table in our entry way to the living room.

Here's the recipe in case you'd like to create some of these yummy cookies. You can also add chopped nuts, chocolate chips and coconut to the recipe.

 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Enjoy!

 

 

Ingrediants:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cups old fashioned oats (do not used quick oats) uncooked
• 1 cup cranberries (I like the large ones from Whole Foods)

Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and cranberries; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets