Homemade Goodies: Embossed Valentines

I've fallen in love recently, and no, I'm not cheating on Ryan. I've recently fallen in love with my embossing gun. I'm going to be honest, now that I have one, I'm embossing anything that lies still for more than 5 minutes or so. With Valentine's Day fast approaching, I thought: why not make your own Valentines? And that's exactly what I did.  Should you be interested in doing the same, I may or may not have written out the instructions below.

Here's my set-up, I went with the robin egg blue/red/silver color scheme. I got all of my supplies from Paper Source and if you're new to the embossing game, you'll need:

1) card stock

2) embossing gun (a $25 investment but WELL WORTH IT!)

3) A stamp

4) Stamp pad (I went with clear this time around)

5) Embossing powder (normally I use clear, but I tried silver this time!)

Stamp ink onto card stock. I generally go for the middle of the card, but you can do whatever you want!

Sprinkle embossing powder over wet ink and shake off excess powder. 

Turn on embossing gun & watch the magic happen!  You'll know it's done by the change in color--it will go from a muted color to a VIVID color. It's pretty amazing, actually. 

Now you're ready to write your love notes!! Be sure to spread the love evenly!!!! 

Happy Holidays...

From my cats to yours.

I'm really happy with how this year's cards came out. The photoshoot we did, was, errr, painful to say the least. But we did manage to get some good shots out of it. One thing I'd like you all to know is do not start a kitty-cat photoshoot without treats. That was our amateur mistake this year. As a result they were uncooperative and miserable. Despite the fact that Oliver looks adorable in his Santa hat, I nearly lost a finger putting it on. AND once it was on, it only lasted about a minute. YOU HAVE TO WORK FAST PEOPLE when dealing with cranky pets. HAHA. Last year we had treats and catnip to keep these boys happy. I'll never do another photoshoot without them again.

But enough with my creative woes, Happy Holidays (again).  

(Check out last year's cards here.)

A Lady Did Christmas Presents: Co-Worker Gifts

I love making little tasty treats for my co-workers as holiday gifts. Here are some ideas I found on Pinterest to inspire you to do the same! And if they don't inspire you to be crafty, just give your co-workers a bag of marshmallows minis with the poem:

You've been bad

So here's the scoop

All you get for the holidays 

is snowman poop.

See? Pure poetry.

XO.

{Tasty homemade bread}

{Totally cute!}

{I actually made this back in 2009! I made the peppermint hot chocolate mix! It was so cute!}

A Lady Did Christmas Presents: Pom Pom Garland

As I mentioned the other day, I made pompom garland. I also might have mentioned that Bruiser ripped it down with a savageness I've never seen before. Well, since most of you don't have a Bruiser, here are some instructions on how to make your own pompom garland should you want to. 

Here's what you'll need...

I got all of my supplies at Michael's for about $10. I got the LARGEST needles I could find! Keep that in mind. 

Next up: 

Create a patter with your pompoms or DON'T create a pattern. This is your project, so do what you please, but I went with the red, white, and green theme. 

What's not pictures is probably the most important {tisk, tisk, Katie} but I want you tell you how to actually tie your pompoms onto the string. What I did was tie about 3-4 pompoms onto a piece of string & then snip that piece off, and set it aside. This garland gets tangled QUICK, so creating smaller segments and then tying them together later is the way-to-go. I threaded a bunch of pompoms onto the string. Then I slide a pompom to the side and knotted it into place. Then I slide another pompom over, keeping the spacing in mind, and tied that into place. I did that one more time and then SNIP SNIP SNIPPED. Not going to lie, but I'm kind of obsessed with the end result. The best part is that it only took me a 1/2 hour! Booya!

{he literally hovered near me during the entire project!}

{See the savageness I was talking about!?}

Outtake

So, I made pompom garland the other day.

It was promptly ripped down by the BRUISER MONSTER. 

I'm going to post the instructions regardless, because I'm sure that some of you don't have Bruiser Monsters to contend with. 

Stay tuned y'all.

It's Begining To Look A Lot Like...

[CHRISTMAS!!!]

OK, so this is my favorite time of year. I love winter, and twinkle lights, and everything associated with Christmas. To express my undying love, I have some crafts lined up for you, Blog friends, and will start sharing them tomorrow. In the meantime, take a look last year's Christmas card, adorbs, right? Ryan and I had a little photo shoot with the fur babes, and I wish I could re-use them again this year (cause there that damn cute).

I desperately wanted to have a picutre of Ryan and I, but he wasn't having it. So I got this picture instead. Lovely.

XO.