Off to the Market

Despite seeing the Christmas stuff on store shelves and hearing holiday tunes on the radio we STILL have Thanksgiving to celebrate!  I love fall and have a hard time with how it gets shortened each year in favor of more commercialism… don’t rush my pumpkins and leaves!

So today I am showing you another fall project while I still can.  I used the Harvest Market line from Lily Bee for Right at Home Scrapbooking this month and I am in love with the versatile patterns and rich autumn colors. 

Think Big

I also used the Maya Road kraft doilies that I can’t get enough of , some twine from The Twinery, wood buttons, and a Pink Paislee Daily Junque number card. 

Happy harvesting!

Veterans Day and Operation Write Home

Happy Veterans Day to all our service men and women past and current! 

Today, in honor of all our folks in uniform May Arts (and many others) teamed up for a blog hop with Operation Write Home again, this time for thank  you cards.  We are sending thank yous to soldiers and thank yous for them to send to their loved ones. 

Please consider sending thank you cards or any other themed cards to Operation Write Home and make a soldier’s day!  In the mean time, check out the rest of the cards and the more of the hop at May Arts.

Here are mine, using Pink Paislee’s 365 Degrees and Hometown Summer lines:

A Non-Traditional Advent Banner

It’s another banner!

Yes, I have been on banner overdrive lately.  But come ON… how can you not love this fun bag/envelope banner?  I used Pink Paislee’s awesome winter release, Snow Day, so I could use this countdown banner for Christmas, winter birthdays, and even Valentine’s Day. 

This year I will be using it as a non-traditional advent calendar leading up to Christmas.  My husband will get the even numbers and the little guy will get the odd numbers.  I plan on filling each little envelope and bag with things like scratch tickets, candy, and knick knacks (for the husband) and stickers, animal crackers, and toy cars (for the boy).  These bags have a pretty good amount of room so I can even get small books, socks (ooooh!), and a few larger things in there!

I made all the bags and envelopes myself out of muslin and burlap.  There are six different styles.  I left most of the raw edges unfinished because I liked the rustic look and because, well, I didn’t want to send myself to the funny farm by trying to make burlap look perfect!

I used my hot glue gun to attach all the paper to the fabric because I wanted it to be durable and burlap is tough, adhesive wise. 

The brad closure envelopes are hung on the ribbon and closed with twine.

There are two mini “paper” bags that I sewed to actually have gussets like lunch sacks!  They are folded over at the top and I used clothespins to fasten them to the ribbon. 

On the right I folded the top of the pouch over and used three brads right through the burlap to fasten it over the ribbon.

The hanging bags are slightly gusseted but wide and left open at the top.  I hung them from wide ribbon “handles”.

The hanging sacks have round bottoms and gathered tops and are tied on with the ribbon in the gathered casing. 

Lastly, the pointed envelopes are simply looped over the top of the ribbon and clothespinned. 

I love this banner. 

You know what else I love??  Paper Issues.  If you want to check out more amazing Snow Day inspiration, link up your own snow themed projects (by the 12th), and even throw your name in to win some fab Snow Day goodness head on over to Paper Issues ASAP!

Till next time!