Save Thanksgiving and Stretch Your Seasonal Decorations!

My favorite holiday has long been Thanksgiving.  It has family and food and no stress for me (when I'm not hosting).  And even if I host Thanksgiving, it does not have the added stress of gift buying and wrapping that Christmas does.  I also love the message of being thankful for what I have now, for family, friends, life and so much more!  So, it bothers me that retailers open Thanksgiving night and I refuse to go out and shop!
I like to wait to decorate for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving.  But the weather can be too cold for outside decorating after Thanksgiving.

So this year, I have started by hanging my door garland, and giving it a Thanksgiving wrap.  I also added a sign cut with my Cricut.  So, I am entering this in the Fantabulous Cricut Blog #289:  Autumn.   I used a cut from Rad and Happy called Thankful Banner.  I ungrouped the cut and hid some contours to cut a mat layer.  I glued both layers to chip board and punched 2 holes.  After Thanksgiving, I 'll take down the garland, take off the Thanksgiving flair, and add a red ribbon, some floral picks and a Merry Christmas sign made with my Cricut.

UFO Challenge 46: Poetry

I am continuing to challenge you to get your Un Finished Objects done, by posting a weekly challenge inspired by wedding anniversary gifts.  This week I post my 46th challenge, and the 46th wedding anniversary present is poetry.  So, this week use poetry in your UFO project and get an extra entry!  Don't have a poetry UFO?  You can still get an entry for working on any of your UFOs!  Just pull out a UFO you are working on write a blog post, on your blue UFO, then post a link to your blog post below, or photo online. 

My project at the top is another page for my Quotes to Live by album I am making and using currently in my Anna Griffin planner.  The flowers, swirl and flag are from an Anna Griffin card kit and the green and gold paper comes with the planner.  The quote is by John F. Kennedy and is perfect for everyday and for Veteran's Day, so I added a flag to my page.  It says, "As we express our gratitude we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."  

UFO Challenge #45 Sapphire Blue

I am continuing to challenge you to get your Un Finished Objects done, by posting a weekly challenge inspired by wedding anniversary gifts.  This week I post my 45th challenge, and the 45th wedding anniversary present is traditionally sapphires.  So, this week use sapphire blue in your UFO project and get an extra entry!  Don't have a blue UFO?  You can still get an entry for working on any of your UFOs!  Just pull out a UFO you are working on write a blog post, on your blue UFO, then post a link to your blog post below, or photo online. 

For my project today, I am back to working on my Anna Griffin Planner.  I just ordered and received the refill pages for the next 18 months and I love this planner!  The entire planner has beautiful AG graphics and the cover is embossed faux pink leather.  She now has an even better ring available than when I ordered mine and a teal cover.  I love the pocket pages and the accessory kit that you can order to go with it too!  But I do have one complaint and it is a big one for me.  This planner starts the week on the monthly pages on Mondays (see photo above this paragraph for the original monthly page).  What!?  The week starts on Sundays!  All the other calendars, I refer to to get my deadlines and important dates start on Sundays.  We planner people, keep a planner so we don't miss a thing and having the wrong start to the week can lead to errors and missed dates or deadlines.  I have started to make my own planner stickers for the monthly pages to move the Sunday to the far left where it belongs.  I hope Anna Griffin fixes this for the next refill!

 
At the top of the post you can see my additions to Anna's planner to put my Sunday on the left and the added notes on the right.  I used Cricut DS to make the stickers.  The grid on the left is made with CTMH Artbooking.  I had to weld two shapes.  The note paper on the right is from a black and white pattern also in DS.  I used the Splice tool to cut a portion of the paper that had the most lines and a bit of the swirl in it and then distressed it with a bit of ink to match Anna's graphics  I love this DS paper pattern for journaling in my scrapbooks too!  .  I am going to enter this in Bittenbythebug2's flourish challenge.  I love using the paper patterns in the DS software almost as much as I like using the cut files!  

UFO Challenge #44: Anything Goes

It turns out that the only traditional 44th anniversary gift I could find information on is groceries.  Groceries?!  No, I think not!  So, this weeks challenge is anything goes.  To enter the challenge, just pull out a UFO you are working on write a blog post, on your travel themed UFO, then post a link to your blog post below, or photo online. 
I planned a page for more Christmas cards I need to scrapbook.  I just have to find the time to cut and glue.  I used Anna Griffin's Lovely Layered  Cards 2 and hid some of the contours and deleted some layers to focus on the wreath in the white layer.  I am dreaming of a white Christmas.  The Merry Christmas is from Anna's Christmas Kitsch.  

UFO Challenge #43: Travel

As a long time Chicago Cubs fan, I just had to sneak this into today's post.  Congratulations on the National League Championship!  Go Cubs!

So, this week I am finally posting the 43rd challenge on Thursday and it's Travel Themed!   To enter the challenge, just pull out a UFO you are working on write a blog post, on your travel themed UFO, then post a link to your blog post below, or photo online.  And yes, I will accept a vacation plan for a trip on your bucket list!

I have deserted my UFO's this week to work on costumers for me and my co workers.  We have decided to be emojis for our Halloween parade.  Some of the request I got were for Cubs and Packer emojis.  Who knew there were such emojis?!  So, I printed some Cubs logos and tried the Cricut Snap Mat for cutting.

I was so excited about this feature, but did not find it accurate enough for this project. Pictured above is my finished logo cut with snap mat and below are the pre printed logos on the mat.  Some other comments on the snap mat, I was unable to move more than one of the circles on my mat to cut all four logos.  Since it did not center the image as I placed it, it all worked out.  I hope to play with this some more to determine if it is me or the Cricut DS that needs more tweaking.  I used an old ipad for the photo and will try this again with my newer Apple 6 phone.  I hope that the higher resolution photo will help!

UFO Challenge #42: Anything Goes

I'm late!  I was out of town this weekend attending the Covered Bridges Festival in Indiana to celebrate a sister's 50th birthday.  So, this week I am finally posting the 42nd challenge on Thursday and it's Anything Goes!   To enter the challenge, just pull out a UFO you are working on write a blog post, then post a link to your blog post below, or photo online.

UFO Challenge #41 Put it in a Pumpkin!

I love the layered scene cut files on the Cricut!  And wanted to use one in my Michael's craft pumpkin.  I got the 9" Pumpkin and cut my scene at 5 3/4" inches.  I used a rounded corner punch in the bottom corners of the scene so it would fit inside and used foam tape between the layers.  You're gonna want one too!  So, for this weeks challenge, I am straying from the anniversary inspiration and offering an extra entry for the use of a pumpkin in your UFO.  To enter the challenge, just pull out a UFO you are working on write a blog post, then post a link to your blog post below, or photo online.  You can even join us on Facebook with your project.  
I am going to enter this in the Double D Pumpkintime Challenge.  If your a stamper, you will want to check out this challenge blog!