Sneak peek time!

Eek! We are so excited to share this tiny sneak peek with you of our upcoming valentine’s launch! We are planning to launch our new items very soon, but are waiting on one last thing before we set and announce an exact date :)

Lots of super fun things in store for the new year! I still can’t believe another year has went by so fast! It’s incredible to think about all we’ve been through and all the new friends we’ve made and met :) I think I’m going to make one of those “looking back” lists… those look fun!!

Thanks for letting us share this with you, we hope you like it!!

Xo, Elle

We're back!

We are back from our vacation! We had an amazing time with our family and friends, and we hope you did, too! No snow this year for us, but that's okay... maybe next year! Anyone have any great holiday stories? We'd love to hear them!!

I felt so excited, inspired and refreshed that I started extra early this morning :) We have so, SO much in store for the new year and we'll be sharing some details, soon!

We are hoping to get all orders, that were placed while we were gone, out today. We don't want to make you wait any longer!!

Thank you for all your patience and support during this time, we appreciate, love and missed you so much!!
xo, Elle

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season :)

The shop is now closed until December 28th as we spend some extra time this week with our families!

See you when we return! Merry Christmas!
xo, Elle

It's the most wonderful time... of the year!

Christmas is almost here!! I'm getting so, SO excited, I can hardly wait to give my family their gifts! I picked out and made some really fun and unexpected ones this year... since they read this blog, I can't tell you what they are... yet!

We were super excited with these little gift boxes Kristin Hayne made for us! They are perfect for gift giving! And, what's in this one? A super cute ornament filled with our mini papers all curled up - love it!She also made this box, that is a little smaller and waiting to be filled with something special :)
These little boxes look so cute in our Christmas decorations, too! Thanks so much for all your hard, amazing work, Kristin!

We hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
xo, Elle

Please note: We will be taking December 21st - 28th off to spend the holidays with our families. If you are planning on placing an order, please make sure your order is in by 8 am (Pacific Time) on the 21st. The 21st is our LAST shipping day until the 28th, when we return.

Christmas bags!!

I've had a couple people ask for other ideas of what to fill the goodie bags with and thought maybe I should do a blog post about it! If you live near a dollar store, make sure you check it out! They have perfect, affordable little knick knacks that work great for putting in the bags! Also, don't forget about candy canes, too!Supplies used: Digital Download Holiday Bags

The bags couldn't be easier to make! Print them out at home, fold and glue! Can't wait to hand these out :)

Tomorrow we have one last project to share from Kristin, can't wait! Hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday season!!

Christmas is only a week away, can you believe it?!
xo, Elle

Brown paper packages tied up with...

Brown paper packages tied up with... holiday tags, gingerbreads and fabric ribbon! Daniela made these cuties and we are so glad she did!
Supplies used: 4 x 4 mini papers, holiday tags, and gingerbread stamp set
I love their little hair accessories! Too cute!! And, in each of the bags are these adorable cookie cutter sets! These would make great gifts for the holidays - perfect for hostesses, too!
Thanks so much for sharing these with us, Daniela! We loved the way you decorated these gifts!

A Christmas Garland!

Samantha surprised me over the weekend with this amazing flashcard/gingerbread Christmas garland!
She did an amazing job - I love how she added the gingerbread between each of the flashcards, too cute!!
And, I love how she made the dresses and shorts out of our 4 x 4 papers and how strung it on her tree!
Supplies Used: 4 x 4 mini papers, Christmas Flashcards and Gingerbread Stamp set

So cute! Thanks so much for sharing this with us, Samantha! Love all those extra details you added, too!!

Around the web!

This is something new we will be starting for 2010, but we wanted to give you a little preview of this new and fun idea extra early!

Each month we want to feature items from people that have used our products, but are not on our design team! And, soon, you'll see on the side of our blog how you can submit your project to be showcased :) We are super excited to see what everyone creates and to be able to share it with our readers!

Let's get started:This whisk gift project was made by Valerie and what a cute idea! She even filled the whisk with Hershey kisses!! Love it! She used our scalloped circle tags and Granny's Doily tags.

Christine Middlecamp amazing layered layout features our 4 x 4 mini papers and vintage winter flashcards. She has also put together a little tutorial at her blog to show how she put it together, make sure you check it out - looks amazing!!

We love how Jill used our calendar tag from her Studio Calico kit! And, all the other details in this layout are incredible! So pretty!!

And, Marci, from the Helmar Design Team used our vintage Christmas flashcards on her adorable little gingerbread house! We love it - so inspiring!!

Thank you so much for sharing these projects with us, ladies. We love them all so much!!
xo, Elle

Paper Christmas Ornaments!

Aren't these just the cutest?! Kristin Hayne totally surprised me with these a month ago to put on display at our CKC show! She covered paper mache shapes with our 4 x 4 holiday papers - I never thought to do this for ornaments! How cute would these look on the tree?!
She even distressed the edges and added a little white paint. And, added some extra texture embellishments, too!
The star turned out amazing - love how she used each of the 6 different papers and alternated them! I think I'll have to make a couple of these for my mom - she'll love them!

Thanks Kristin!

Christmas Blocks!! (and winners, too)

Over the next week we have some fun and amazing Christmas projects, that were made by Kristin Hayne, to share with you!

These are super cute Christmas blocks that she made with our Christmas line and some small wooden blocks from the craft store. I love how you can turn them and with each turn you get a new saying and a new design!
So much fun!! Thanks for the inspiration, Kristin! We also have some cute Christmas ornaments and present boxes to share, from Kristin, during this next week, can't wait!

We had so much fun reading through all the comments in our last post and hearing your favorites Christmas treats and boy did you all make me HUNGRY! I definitely have some new recipes I have to try, soon! Thank you so much for all the good ideas and kind words about my recipe :) I hope everyone that tried making it liked it as much as I did ;) Ours is all gone, LOL!

The two lucky winners, we drew, from the post below are:
Paper bags: janet
Digital Download: Jenny

Congrats ladies! Please email me and we'll get you goodies out asap :)

We hope every ones having a wonderful holiday season! Any snow yet? No snow here... but they are saying maybe on Sunday... eek!!
xo, Elle

Peppermint & Pistachio Christmas Bark - pt. 2 + giveaway!

Now that we've made our Peppermint and Pistachio Bark, we are ready to package it up for friends and family!

We made some simple tags with our 4 x 4 papers and Holiday Greeting Tags!
First we used our Marvy scalloped circle punch to punch some circles in our 4x4 papers
Then, we glued one of our Holiday Greeting Circles in the middle of punches with our Helmar glue - this glue is the best! Next, we punched a tiny hole in the top to string some bakers twine through...
You can also do that with our Special Delivery gift tags!
Then, we just put the bark into a clear bag (this one we picked up in the baking section at our local craft store) and tied it with yarn or ribbon. Add the special tag and you're done!
Another option is to put the bark in one of our bags! The bags are in a digital kit that you download, print out, then cut and fold! You can make as many bags as you want with this download! Click here to check out the bags.
Yum! I really can't believe how good this bark is! Especially since I'm not a fan of white chocolate! Something about the white mixed with the milk chocolate and the salty pistachios... I die :D

We thought it was time for a giveaway, since it's been awhile since the last one! Just leave a comment letting us know your favorite Christmas dessert! We'll pick TWO winners on Thursday night! One person will win our Holiday papers and Holiday Greeting tags and the other person will win our Digital Download Holiday Bags!

Good luck, everyone!
xo, Elle

Peppermint & Pistachio Christmas Bark - pt. 1

It's delicious and... almost gone! My family loves when I make recipes for the blog readers because they get to eat the leftovers :) Except this time, I doubled the batch because I wanted to give some away to neighbors, friends and coworkers. It was a good thing I did, too, because it was disappearing quickly!

I've been seeing a ton of recipes around the internet for Peppermint Bark and wanted to try it out, but I'm not a huge fan of peppermint... Then, when I was eating pistachios one day, I thought, HEY! Pistachio Bark would taste amazing!! And, pair it with peppermint and you've got red and green for Christmas!

We put together a quick step-by-step of the recipe (warning: lots of photos!) and in part 2, we'll show you how we packaged it up for our friends!
Recipes:
Peppermint Bark
1 bag (12 oz) of white chips
1 bag (12 oz) of milk or dark chocolate chips
35 small candy canes

Pistachio Bark
1 bag (12 oz) of white chips
1 bag (12 oz) of milk or dark chocolate chips
1 cup of pistachios
For your first layer of chocolate, you'll want to put your chips in a microwave safe bowl and in the microwave for around 30 seconds. If your microwave runs hot, try 15 seconds. These chips will burn VERY easily, so the less the better!

After the 30 seconds in the microwave, take it out and stir. Put back into the microwave for 10 - 15 seconds. Repeat this step about 4 times, making sure you stir the chocolate each time.
Almost there...
Perfect!
Spread the chocolate on a parchment covered cookie sheet and place in the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes to set.

While your waiting for your chocolate to set, it's time to crush up your peppermint and/or pistachios!
We put them each in zip-lock bags and use our mallet to crush them up. The pistachios we left in bigger chunks...
Now that your first layer of chocolate has set, you can start on the second layer! Repeat the same steps with the other chips... Spread it over the set chocolate...
Sprinkle on your peppermint or pistachio pieces...
And, put it back in the fridge or freezer to set again...

Once it is set, you can break it up into pieces! We left ours in pretty nice size pieces...
Sooooooooooooooo good! Here's our HUGE WARNING: It's addictive!!

Bonus! Right now almost all the chocolate is on sale at the store for the holidays! I got a great deal on the Ghirardelli chocolate, so I was excited :) Plus, this made enough for quite a few people - I have lots to give out!

We'll show you how we packaged them up in our next post... coming soon!
xo, Elle

P.S. Don't like peppermint or pistachios? Try Cookies and Cream Bark or Lemon Bark!!