Ho-Ho-Holiday Cards: Giveaway!

Happy Holidays!

If you can believe it, little man is sleeping (thank you swing!) and I got a moment to pull my computer out and even do some shopping...

At the holiday time every year, I always need the following:

-Holiday Cards
-Gift Ideas for EVERYONE
-Martinelli's sparkling cider.

At least for the first one, my Holiday Cards, I can take care of that easily at Cardstore.com with their hundreds of Holiday Cards. 

If you've been following my blog at all (thanks, by the way!) you'll know already that I love this site to easily order personalized Photo Cards & other paper goods, like stationary, invitations, and announcements.  I have ordered cards in the past to showcase my photography, numerous stationary cards, and even my Wedding Invitations and Birth Announcements just a month ago for little man.

I will be ordering these "Red Scroll Border" photo cards today and get them in the mail:

Isn't my little man the cutest?  He had a blast with Santa :)

The hardest part?  There are so many great patterns to choose from- like over 350+ just in the holiday photo card section!  Bold red is my favorite, so I love the clean lines on this card.  Also, I chose to personalize the back as well.  :)  I chose to personalize Photo Cards at Cardstore.com this year, and it was fun to browse my photos of little man to find the best ones for the cards.

It's so easy- I really reccomend trying it out this year if you haven't ordered your Holiday Cards yet- they're even going to offer a giveaway for my blog readers!  Just leave a comment about your favorite part of the cardstore.com website and I'll enter you into the drawing- You'll get to pick- either a set of photo gift tags (another new item offered this year! see the selection here) or a personalized photo notebook (another newer item that you can check out here).   Entry eligibility closes Sunday (12/12/10) 11:59pm PST

***

DISCOUNT FOR EVERYONE!

For the rest of you, you get a discount on any order right now too, just for being a Design-Aholic reader:  enter code CSHOLIDAY20 for 20% off you entire first Cardstore.com order!  Get those holiday cards NOW!

***

Anyway, I really wanted to share with you quickly.  Go, check out the cardstore.com site, leave a comment to be entered into the drawing for the photo gift tags or notebook, and have a happy holiday!


Take care, and keep up those awesome Holiday Crafts... I hope to join in with a few this weekend :)

Easter Egg Tree

To add to my collection of growing spring decor, I wanted an Easter touch for the dining room table:

A few months ago (6 to be exact?) I picked up some thin branches and twigs to use in an arrangement, but never got around to it.  With Easter coming up, I wanted an Easter Egg tree, and the best way I could think to pull it off was to use the twigs I already had.  (I mean, after all I had handpicked each one of them, and gotten odd stares from people at the dog park.  Yes, I picked them up at the dog park, and yes, the dogs sniff them uncontrollably when they're are at their level.  :)  )

Anyway, back to the project.  I purchased these small packs of eggs at the dollar store- just what I needed:  they were already great colors, and the styrofoam was smooth.

I had seen this great idea of covering them with seed beads online somewhere (can't remember where right now) so I had been striving to replicate that.

I thought I would purchase matching colored beads, but remembered that back in the day, I used to bead all.the.time and had buckets (litteraly) of beads to draw off of.  So I got the colors together, mixed up a "plate" for each color then just used some white glue and a paint brush.  Rolling the eggs didn't quite work, so I just grabbed pinches of the mixture then sprinkled over the eggs.

 

  

  

  

They dried overnight, and I added them to the carefully placed twig arrangements.  Oh, and I added some of my moss "rocks" to the vase for some dimension.  And, I placed the bunny on the table next to the eggs.  Yay for Spring, and Yay for Easter!  I just love these colors, so cheery, happy, and fresh.

 

  

  

  

 

So, have you decorated with sticks, twigs, or branches?  I love bringing the outside in.  How do you arrange your earthy touches?

Tell me!  Oh, and that 200th follower giveaway is coming soon... just need a few more days!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Sunday & Valentine's Day 2010, all!

Since Valentine's projects have been going strong for a month and a half now (since right after Christmas?  I think the blog world is just as bad as the retail stores!) I wanted to recap for you the great Heart-Love-Valentine's projects Design-Aholic worked on this year!

1.  Fluffy Valentine's Fabric Heart Shaped Wreath

2.  Folded Felt Kissing Balls

3.  Valentine's Heart String Banner

4.  Candycane Hearts

UPDATE: Zoot-a-lo, I have meeeesed one!  (reference, Little Mermaid, crazy chef trying to get Sebastian.  Remember?  no?  Just me?  ok.)

5.  Heart heart heart framed art

I hope you all have a glorious day (long weekend, yea!) filled with love and family.  :)

Candy Cane Hearts

I made hearts today out of candy canes.

Let's back up.  I was cleaning the house, and dusting my shelves (as I get ready to revamp the decor on it after the dilemma party!) and found the silver compote from the holidays, and it was still filled with candy canes.  Yes, holiday candy canes.  What a waste, I thought at first... as I took them out of the compote, a few fell on the counter in a familiar shape, and the light bulb went on!

Why not turn these into cute hearts for a final Valentine's Day Project!

Super duper easy, and I figure someone else has already done this, but I'm reveling in the fact that I thought it up today...

I was able to make 13 hearts!  Just a dab of hotglue on each end of one of the candycanes.  Then, just sit the other candy on top in the cute heart shape.  :)

 

  

  

 

Then, place them around the house, and tie some with a pretty ribbon and give to your coworkers!  (or valentine's at school?!)

 

(yep!  That's part of the new decor from the designs dilemma post... stay tuned for more)

  

  

So, happy early Valentine's day everyone!  I hope you have a day full of love that day and moving forward :)

Pink Felt Kissing Balls

Here's another quick Valentine's Craft for you- Pink Felted Kissing balls!  Plus it's another one I teased you a few days back on this post.  :)

So in order to add to my Valentine's decor collection (which I'm just building up slowly with a few projects from this year, like this wreath) I tried my hand at the felt-fold-pin technique.

Totally not a new idea... as I'm sure you've seen this technique all over the place, I'll keep this post short and sweet.  Besides, the pictures are lacking this time, I don't know what was wrong with my camera!

I needed:

3, 1/4' cuts of fabric: I used light pink, hot pink, and red.  Hard to tell by the photos.
2, 4" styrofoam balls
dressmaker/straight pins
Circle Pattern, pencil, scissors

First, I traced out all my cirlces on the multiple colors of pink and red felt I purchased.  I probably had around ~40 of each color.  My circles were about 3 1/4 inch.

 

 

The next part is super simple!  Fold each circle in half, then in half again.  Take a straight pin, and push through the point at the end of the fold, and then just push into the styrofoam. 

 

  

I went around in a circle first, then filled in the halves similar to how I did in this Christmas ornament project.

I propped mine up on the shelf in my new office, and I love them!

 

 

Here are some other versions of this project that I'm sure you'll love too:

Via Etsy tutorial Tuesday, this orange lumbar type pillow.  Which, by the way, I absolutely love, and may make to go in the new living room one of these days:

From Design-Sponge, a super clean, white circular wreath:

From The Idea Room, the Valentine's Wreath Version:

So, with that, I wish you an early "Happy Valentine's Day".  :)