Christmas All Year Long--May

Excuse me--have you seen the month of May? Mine seems to have come and gone so fast, I didn't realize it! All of a sudden, it's time for the Christmas All Year Long Blog Hop--even though it seems we just did this for April! Guess it is true that time flies when you are having fun--and I've been really enjoying the spring weather despite all the rain.

If you're doing the blog hop, you should have arrived here from Cheryl's blog . But if you've landed here purely by lucky chance, perhaps you'd like to start at the very beginning, at the Magnolia-licious Christmas All Year Long blog.

I gave myself some extra challenges on this--to use my new Copic air brush system, and to use my Cricut. I air-brushed the background of my circle with Y000--afraid to use too much color too soon, since this is the very first time I've used it. I left it in the Nestabilities die that I cut it in, so I could have a white rim to the circle. After I got Tilda colored, I added random dots with Sakura Stardust gel pen, and I used the Sakura Glaze (clear) pen to add some shine to the labels on the package.

The snowflake behind the image is cut with the Cricut using the 'When It's Cold Outside' cartridge. I outlined the circle and the edges of the snowflake with Stardust Stickles. Corners were added with the punch from Stampin' Up!, and gold pearls. My cardstock was from Georgia-Pacific and Prism, and the Christmas print was from Basic Grey. The Copic markers I used are pictured below.

Many thanks go out to Deb, who owns the Magnolia-licious Yahoo group, and to Diana, the owner of the Magnolia-licious Store --they keep us inspired, connected, drooling over new stamps, and set up with a great place to order them from! Thanks ladies!

Your next stop on the Blog Hop is Glenda's blog -- and she always has such beautiful cards!

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to leave a comment or a question--I'd love to hear from you!

Busy Busy Busy!

Wedding invitations. 'Nuff said?

My son gets married at the end of the summer, and when I said I'd make the invitations, he dubbed me the 'vice-president in charge of all paper products'. Then told me I was working for him. My reply? "Honey, you can't afford me!" LOL

But it's been fun working on this project. YES--it will be posted here eventually--but not until the invitations have gone out in the mail later this summer. All 150-175 of them!

I've been cutting and pasting and more cutting and more pasting. SO GLAD that I got an ATG tape gun a couple years ago--I'm going thru tape like crazy. Last night, I went thru nearly 4 rolls. And each roll is 36 yards long!

Then there are other projects to follow the invites--programs, place cards, menu cards, table numbers, rehearsal invites, shower invitations, and thank you notes. And I seriously couldn't do this if it weren't for my Cricut. I'm cutting more things on there than I ever would have dreamed, and it's saving me so much time.

This has been a labor of love, and I've enjoyed making everything--so hang in there with me and there will be pictures eventually. And a few cards that have been planning themselves out in the back of my mind, just waiting to be made!