XYRON! A Fond Farewell, and Game Day Decorations!

Good Morning! Today is a bittersweet day for me, as it is officially my last post for Xyron Adhesives. I have had a complete blast sharing everything that I have made with all of you. I will forever cherish the time that I spent working for a fabulous company, and alongside some super-talented ladies. 

Even amongst the bitter part, it will be a fantastic weekend this weekend. For starters, today is my birthday! While I'm not going to tell you how old I am, I will say that I'm younger than the Seattle Seahawks who are going to the Super Bowl this weekend!!

Since I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, it's a pretty big deal that our Seahawks are playing on Sunday. We watch every Hawks game, and usually my husband attends at least one a year. While our family usually watches the big game, no matter who plays, we don't usually decorate. This year... All bets are off (at least on the decoration side of things!)

I really love this banner. It's fun, and because I didn't use the team name, only a PNG of the Hawks logo, I could break it out again later if I chose to.

My husband was gifted these quite a few years ago, and we get to decorate with them finally! Just a little bit of vintage Seahawks!
For the food picks and the larger logo, I just found a PNG file of the logo online. THIS is the version that I used for this project. My crafty friend Brenda shared with me a fantastic tutorial on how to use your Silhouette's Print and Cut feature. There really are quit a few out there, and this one just worked for me. Once those were all cut, I used my Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker to adhere the logos to a scalloped rectangle that I sized just for this.

Once the logos were adhered to the rectangles, I simply attached some popsicle sticks that I cut in half (and made pointy!) with a couple of Xyron Adhesive Solutions 3/8" Dots.  Now I'm ready to spear some amazing game snacks!

The banner was really easy too! I took a football shape from the Silhouette store, and cut it in both kraft paper for the football, and white for the laces. I cut the title with cardstock, then offset the letters so that I could use a contrasting color with each letter. I then ran both the laces and the blue letters through my Xyron 3" Sticker Maker. I think that the 3" is my favorite Xyron tool.

Once the laces were attached to the footballs, and the blue letters were attached to the offset green ones, I needed to attach the title to each of the football pieces. Using the Xyron Adhesive Solutions 3/8" Dots, each of the letters was easily attached.

Once all of the letters were attached, I used a hole punch to create a place to use my grey twine and string up the banner.  

I'm kind of in love with the whole effect. Now all I need is some football snacks and one amazing game! GO HAWKS!

Supplies Used:
Xyron Adhesive Dots in 3/8", Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker, Xyron 3" Sticker Maker, American Crafts Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cover, Silhouette Cameo, Twinery Twine, printer, popsicle sticks.

AUTHENTIQUE: Leaky Shed Chipboard!!

Hello! Today's post over at Authentique Paper uses some amazing chipboard by Leaky Shed Studios! This is a cute mini book that I created using Leaky Shed's Camera Scrapbook Album. The great part of this mini, is that all of the sections are separate, so that it is really easy to cover with various papers and then glue down to create some amazing dimension.

For the cover of this mini, I started with Expedition, then covered the middle sections with Touring. Lastly, I used the amazingly inky black paper from the back of the Voyage. I love how black that paper is. The large sticker is from the Details sheet and Elements stickers for the letters. I just love that this mini reminds me of the boat pictures inside by using the May Arts Cord to make it look like a life ring. 

My second project is a sweet Valentine heart decor. I found a paper heart, painted it with acrylic paints, then added pieces from the Smitten Collection (Promise and Components papers) along with Leaky Shed's fantastic Watch Parts.

I really liked how the gears look like they are making the heart run.

Supplies Used:

Authentique Paper: Abroad Collection: Expedition, Touring, Voyage, Details, Elements; Smitten Collection: Promise, Components

Leaky Shed Studio: Camera Scrapbook Album, Watch Parts

Other Supplies: paper heart, acrylic paint, Xyron High Tack Adhesive Dots, Xyron Maya Road Trinket Pins, May Arts Ribbons and Cording

Back to Scrapping, and My One Little Word

The past few weeks have been extremely busy, although I'm not sure I did much at all. Christmas was a blur, we hosted for the very first time. I made an amazing dinner of turkey, all of the traditional sides, and multiple deserts including Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls and a Yule log. Seriously, an amazing feast.

Regardless, I've had a thought throughout this season that I was overdoing it. So my word* for this year is Simplify. I really want to focus on what is really important, for myself, my family, my work, and my life. I feel that although I like to take on the world, I don't need to in order to prove that I am good enough.

Part of Simplying my life was upholding the promise that I made to myself concerning my wonderful Gossamer Blue  kits. I had to cancel my Monthly Main Kit. I had made a deal with myself that I was going to participate each month in their Album Challenge and create at least for layouts by the 14th. Come December 14th, I hadn't finished my four layouts and honored my word. I didn't want to give up completely (mainly because Gossamer Blue puts out some amazing kits, and one day I would like to re-sub again!!!), and instead joined Gossamer Blue's Life Pages kit. I wanted a Simple way to document life, and wanted unique products to create with still. I will still create layouts, just by using my large stash of awesome products.

This was my first layout in awhile not using a pre-fabbed kit. I used my Crate Paper DIY Shop kit that I snagged from ScrapbookSteals right before September's Crop in Utah. I loved pairing the soft hues with these beautiful pics of my girls. I even used the Iolite #6 sketch from ScrapbookSteals.

 

*The One Little Word is part of the Ali Edwards brand and philosophy. While I am not currently doing her class, I am taking a personal look at life using a bit of this philosophy. I'm not sure yet if adding another project within this would truly Simplify my life right now... Maybe in Summer! If you want more information on both Ali's classes and information, please see her 2014 post on her blog. Thanks!

AUTHENTIQUE PAPER: Sweet Little Girls and the Smitten Collection

Today this wonderfully sweet layout is being featured on the Authentique Blog. I love the pinks, reds and browns especially in the Smitten Collection by Authentique Paper. I even used a  Kiwi Lane DT Doodles. I love sketches. They take out all of the second guessing, and sometimes, that is exactly what I need. For this layout, I only used one page from the Week 43 Doodle.

Check it out today! And tomorrow I will update you on some CHA news, my One Little Word for this year, and a very brief update on my hiatus from the blog. Not completely intentional :)