Guest Feature: Halloween Card Tutorial with the Silhouette Cameo and Karla =]

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 So excited for this guest feature!  Karla is a wonderful fellow mil-spouse and Sconnie and she makes fantastic cards.  If you're looking to see a great Silhouette Cameo example or learn what the heck that is...read on!

    I was so honored when the lovely Kimberly Erskine asked me to be a guest feature on her blog. I was especially shocked because I myself am not a blogger nor would I label myself even a good writer. However, Kim is a fan of my cards and I love making cards so I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Kim and I met about three or so years back. We both attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison at the time and ironically enough, we were both about to marry men in the Marine Corps. Ever since my husband joined the Marines, I’ve been a huge fan of writing him letters and more recently making him cards. As you may or may not know, as a military couple, you spend A LOT of time apart. Since my husband enlisted in September of 2010 we have spent somewhere between 14-15 months together. You get really good at writing to each other.  I quickly got bored of typical letters and decided to get into card making not only as a hobby to help pass time but also so that I had more fun things to send my husband. Today I am going to show you a card I am making for my husband. He is coming home VERY SOON from a deployment, and I can’t wait to actually give him this card in person!

   I personally use the Silhouette Cameo for all of my paper cutting (and much more) needs. I love the versatility that it gives you. I began my card today by picking some designs from the online store. (If you don’t have a silhouette, you could easily cut most of these shapes out with scissors or other sorts of die cuts and stamps!)

I found this super cute card from Lori Whitlock. However, the balloon design did not fit my theme so I also pulled some pumpkins from her gallery as well.  

After changing the shape to match my theme, I made a cute banner with a variety of fonts and started thinking of colors and sizes for my card. The default size of the card layout I chose was A2, which I am not fond of. I like big ole 5X6.5” cards. 

Once I had all the sizes and layout established I picked out my papers. I used paper from the Lawn Fawn – Into the Woods paper pad set. I am absolutely obsessed with everything Lawn Fawn. If you don’t know anything about their products, stop reading this and go look them up now. They have adorable stamps, sequins, paper pads, and more. I love all of their stuff. 

I just love how this brown paper has a wood grain look to it. I just think it’s the funnest little detail. Anyways, now with my papers established I started cutting everything out with my Silhouette Cameo.

        

This thing is amazing. Look how detailed it can cut! 

Once all my pieces were cut out, I was ready to assemble the card into the layout I designed in the Silhouette Studio program.

   

I personally am a big fan of glue runners to adhere my shapes together. It doesn’t require drying and it’s super easy to use.

Once all my pieces were assembled together on the card front, I realized that it needed some extra pizazz. I’m not one for making “simple” cards. I also am incapable of spending less than an hour on a card I feel like. It’s just in my nature.

Anyways, so I started adhering various Lawn Fawn sequins onto the card with jewel glue (it’s what I have on hand). Overall I am very happy with how the card came together.

I will apologize for my poor iPhone photos and lack of instruction and commentary. As previously stated I am not a regular blogger, but I couldn’t resist sharing this opportunity with you all today! I hope you all like my little card!

-Karla W. 

Isn't Karla the best?  Absolutely love this adorable card and I may or may not be begging Ryan for a Silhouette for my birthday!!

If you liked this post, share it with others! If you feel particularly moved by it, leave a comment because I love feedback and discussion. Social media links are provided below and thanks for reading!

A Year of Gratitude

You've probably seen it numerous times on my blog, or if you're part of my FB world, that I've been absolutely terrible at keeping in touch with my friends and family.  I just graduated a few months ago and people that I would see on a daily basis, some of my best-friends, I haven't even talked to on the phone.  I want to say it's disgraceful.  I want to back it up with some excuse that I've been crazy busy.  I want to say that I have the crappiest phone service/reception at the house we're in.  I want to fill in all of those things with something to make up for my lack of presence in the lives of so many people I care about.  Sometimes I think that's one of the reasons that I blog.  It's my way of keeping in touch in this crazy world of social media.  But I don't think any of those excuses could make up for my lack of conversation with my best-friend, Katrina, who just graduated from our university, or Emily, another one of my best-friends, who is getting married.  I'm her Matron-of-Honor and I feel like I'm missing out, just because I'm here and she's there.  This isn't like me, all of this is so not like me.  

When Rhonna Designs, hands down one of my all time blogs that inspires me on a daily basis, had a post called A Year of Gratitude, I immediately checked it out because a year of gratitude sounds like something I should be focusing on as part of my #onelittleword.  Rhonna calls it her one little goal project along with her one little word, and I really like that.  Her post covers a year of gratitude in sending out 52 cards (there are 52 weeks in a year, just in case you didn't catch that) and this kit from Compendium Incorporated provides a journal and writing prompts.  It sounds like an amazing idea :)

Well, I don't have $29.95 plus shipping and handling to spend on this beautiful kit (budgeting as a grown-up...oy vey), but I absolutely love the concept. So here's my plan:

Now 52 people does even begin to cover the number of people who I would love to show gratitude towards, but it's a start.  I also love personalizing things and making them special for those who mean a lot to me.  If I make a solid PDF, I'll be sure to share it with all of you and those who would like to participate.  I think this is such a wonderful concept and I'm really excited about!  Join me and add it to making twenty13 one of the best ever  :)

Thanks for Reading!

GIT-R-DONE: The Fast, Easy & Cost-Effective Approach to Holiday Decor

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HOLY SANTA CLAUS'S BEARD, 
IT'S NOVEMBER 23RD!

That really shouldn't make a difference to anyone who knows me because, to be honest, I decorate starting November 1st.  However, for the rest of the holiday-sane community, most people try to decorate the day after Thanksgiving.  This is something I never quite understood coming from Wisconsin, because as I sit in the balmy weather of Central California, my Midwestern kinfolk are huddled inside as Wisconsin is a whopping 23 degrees outside.

 Can anyone say,  

Baby it's cold outside?

I know you've already heard me complain about how un-Christmasey it feels here in Central Cali due to the lack of snow and the irony of having snowflake/snowmen decor, but I have made a few adjustments to my decor and thought I would share them with my bliggety blog community.

I've combed the pages on Pinterest for inspiration and came up with a few concepts that may help you out this holiday season and go a little easy on a college graduate budget.

The children hung their stockings by the fire with care

I love the little details when it comes to designing.  Attention to detail can turn any space into something fabulous.  After seeing advent calendars of mini-stockings, I went on Etsy to see if I could find something similar and only found expensive options.  Target came to the rescue with $3 mitten ornaments that came in a pair.  I took red ribbon with a stream of white dots and hung that along the fireplace.  I then separated each mitten and hung them up with mini clothespins.  It turned out really cute and is one of my favorite decor pieces in the house.  The mini clothespins also came in handy for another idea that's farther along the page.

I ended up buying 5 pairs, so this cost me a little over $15, which definitely  beat the $100+ cost of similar items that I found on Etsy.

 

 

 

 

Mini-Ornament Christmas Tree

Shadow box, scrapbook papers and ornaments cost under $20

I had a few ideas in my head for this concept before creating it and I kind of just went with what I found at our local Michael's.  Instead of purchasing a frame or shadow box like many Pinterest instructions say, I found a wooden shadow box in the unfinished wood items aisle at Michael's for around/under $7.  I then bought blue metallic scrapbook paper as well as a specialty snowflake paper and all of this was for the background.  To actually create the tree, I bought a package of mini ball ornaments that come with about 27 ornaments.  I hot glued the mini ornaments, while layering them on top of each other and it created this beautiful stacking effect.  That was basically it.  A really easy craft piece that is perfect as display piece. 

Shades of Gold

Cost under $10 to recreate these deer

Normally you find decorative deer pieces ranging from $30-$50.  I spotted a few paper-mache deer at a local craft store called Beverly's and here's the kicker...the only cost me $2 each!  I picked three different shades of metallic golds and one is more like a copper but all I needed to do was paint them.  They look incredibly sharp in front of any mantle, coffee table or just an entrance-way piece.  Right now they've made their home on the mantle as I figure out how I want our decor to go.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

I'm sure you've seen these tutorials all over Pinterest, but these trees are so easy to make!  The trees themselves can range from $2-$6, depending on the size.  The best part is wandering the aisles of your local craft store or that craft tub at home and figuring out how you want to decorate them.  The imagination can run wild with these.  I used textured yarns, glitter, feathers, etc. on the ones that I created.  I plan on making more and turning my mantle into a forest that any winter wonderland would be proud of.

An Alternative to Christmas Canvases

Cost me under $10 for this lovely canvas-want-to-be

I have been swooning over the adorable prints featured on Pinterest and Etsy.  As a person who has done quite a bit of graphic design, I've been itching to make some prints.  However, frames can get expensive.  You can, of course, make prints to fit your already existing frames and then swap out those family portraits for some holiday cheer or you can try out this tip.

I wanted to have Christmas canvases but paying for large canvases is not for the faint of heart.  Well I'm always determined to have my cake and eat it too, so I went to home depot and bought pieces of wood planking.  Essentially they're really thin shelves.  They're a little long, but that's easily fixed at home if you have a saw/those kind of materials and I also think that Home Depot (and similar stores) can adjust them for you as well.  It cost me under $7 and looks amazing on my mantle. I painted it with black acrylic paint and let it dry, then free-handed the lyrics, "O Holy Night, the Stars are Brightly Shining" in white acrylic paint.  It brings the entire room together and I love it!

Oh There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

Does anyone love getting mail as much as I do?  Christmas amps up that excitement as I receive cards from friends and loved ones who are now all over the world!  I wanted to decorate our kitchen a little more but wasn't entirely sure how, apart from adding kitchen towels embroidered with holiday cheer.  This is so easy to do, you'll just love it.  I bought wide ribbon from Michael's, around $3 and cut appropriate lengths out to match the length of the cabinets and 

secured them to the back of the doors.  The mini clothespins I used from a previous project, mentioned above, were perfect for attaching Christmas cards and photos.  It definitely adds a little extra warmth to the kitchen.

Schooled by a Chalkboard

If you don't have a chalkboard and have your own living space, you really need one.  Why has this turned into a need, instead of simply a want?  Well it's because a chalkboard is so versatile.  From daily reminders to becoming a decor piece, it has a ton of uses that expand from just being a old school staple.  Chalkboard font has become an art and it's also just a lot of fun.

You can check out my experience making a chalkboard here.

That basically wraps up what I've done so far in terms of decorating.  We have our tree up and my husband has put on our new tree topper, a star!  It's our first Christmas tree together and we're so excited.  It's decorated with both our ornaments and my roommate's, so it's filled with a lot of memories for being a new tree.

Today in the mail, I received this from one of best-friend's, Courtney:

You all knew that I was going to try it. I know a good present when I see one ;)

xoxo,