15 Minute Holiday Decor

It is time again to share just 15 minutes to brighten your holiday decor with three simple items. This quick three piece decoration will create a sweet corner with tiny lights dancing through glass and pine cones. 

Craft Lightning Holiday Edition

Darlins' it is time for Craft Lightning Holiday Edition. Are you ready for Fifteen minutes of fun crafting and a free printable too?
Let's add to that the amazing blogs hosting the event:

 Thank you to each one of you for all your hard work. Rounding up a bunch of creative minds into one group is no small feat. Plus Featuring me along with other bloggers on your blogs tomorrow. Kudos for all you do!

Elf Gift Exchange Bonds Bloggers

Today you have hit the mother load of blog posts I Have joined in with Bloglovin to expand my blog Follow me on BlogLovin , included is a tutorial, a gift exchange and a round up coordinated by my sweet friend +Michele Alger
  Now on to the elf gift exchange which, gave bloggers an chance to learn more about each other, and share holiday spirit. I was lucky to become +Ali Williams  Elf. Thank you Ali for coordinating a bunch of creative bloggers to assemble gifts before Christmas. No easy task I can assure you. We Creative creatures tend to drift here or there especially at this time of year.
  Ali Williams is the creator of Skinny gf  Chef please visit her to grab a few healthy recipes.
  I chose to make her a card as well as a gift card. Shhhh she hasn't received it yet.
I started with doing a bit of stalking on her blog, FB, IG to find out what she liked. Creepy I know but it was for a good cause.

Personalized Christmas Ornament

     One of my favorite times of year is Christmas.  In the Gift giving spirit The Silhouette Challenge Facebook Group December Challenge is here along with a Holiday Giveaway. We have 35 Group members and +Silhouette America  helping us gather this Giveaway for this special time of year.

Fall Lovin October Silhouette Challenge

     This month the theme for the October Silhouette Challenge is Fall! I chose
 5 different shades of +Bazzill Basics Paper card stock: on sale for 59 cents at  +Michaels Stores
 One group of leaf shapes from the +Silhouette America Store:  99 cents.
 One wreath Stand from +Decor Steals:  (previous purchase)
 The leaves I wanted to cut out from my Silhouette library

Tis The Season Nifty Thrifty Gifts

     Tis the Season to find creative ways to give gifts to friends and family that are well made with love of course and useful. In this economic time we are all looking for ways for our gift budget to stretch as far as we can but we still want a thoughtful gift. Last week I went to the Dollar Store to see what I could find for my gift giving project this year. I have to say the thought crossed my mind to use one of the many cost effective gift ideas I have seen on the other blogs, Pinterest, Facebook, Google+ but , I wanted an original idea.
   I shopped around and found silver, metal, mesh, pencil holders. Ahh! This would be my container for the gift. Then what would I put in the holders along, with adding a my creative design, to make this a special gift?
 I spotted the butterfly type paper clips 8 count in the large size and 10 count in the smaller size.
The last few items I need for this gift I already have in my stash at home. Yippie! I have a plan, a nice gift to give, with a little of my creative love thrown into a pencil cup holder.
Can you guess what the gift is yet? Hmmmm. By the way the last few items are scrapbook paper, glue, twine, and I will need to purchase some tulle to use for wrapping because I think it will add a nice touch. I will show you that later on another day.

 Yard Sticks have Character

 Now I need to measure the large and smaller clip, to figure out how much paper I will need, for each size clip.* Disclaimer your paper clips will need to be measured because sizes will vary.
Here are the measurements for the two size clips I bought at the Dollar Store. The Large is 1 5/8" wide, the smaller one is 1 1/4" wide. Now I need to measure the length of the paper I need for each, after some trial and a lot of error. I found that cutting a strip the width of the paper, wrapping it around the clip, making a indent with my finger nail by pressing the paper tight into the top of the clip. This gave me a good place to start. Then I cut the paper a few times until I found just the right measurement, 2" for Large, and 1 5/8" for the small. Out of one 2" strip of paper in 7 different color I was able to make 35 clips. Out of the 1 5/8" strip of paper also using 7 different colors I made 49 clips.

I bought this at Micheal's on Sale

I used my paper cutter to cut out the sizes needed. You can use scissors but it is a lot of cutting. I thought about using my Silhouette paper cutting machine and might in the future now that I have the measurements calculated. I plan on cutting all of my paper out mixing the colors and patterns. I used 7 smaller patterns because large patterns would be lost on this size project. I choose paper not card stock, because it would be to thick to work with folding around the clips. Below is an example of the papers I used. I thought the patterns and colors would be a bright spot on a desk or in a craft room.

Bright and Cheerful Colors

My next step is covering the black clip with the scrapbook paper. I uses E6000 glue on the Large clips, because the paper did not fit in my Xyron. Bummer, I should have bought the bigger Sticker maker. Christmas present for me???  I did use the Xyron permanent sticker for the small clips. It took less time, was less mess, and turned out nicer, in my opinion. This picture shows the paper cut ready to be glued to the clips.

How do you like the finished Clips?

Now I filled the pencil holder with 10 small plus 4 large Fancy clips. Add some Colorful twine to the container. I will wrap with the tulle, twine and a gift tag later.  Here is the final product. Would you like to use these on your desk? Some people even use these for clips to close open bags of snacks,, or chips too. Then I would keep the container in my kitchen, near my Ziploc Bags, Foil, Wax Paper.                                                                                            

A view from the top

Front and Center

    When ever I start  project the ideas still bounce around in my head. I am going to make a few variations of this project in the near future. Do you have any suggestions? I already know I am skipping the E6000 glue on this next time. Great product but not the right one for this application. I also tried Washi Tape on this one and that was not the best for this project either. I am thinking of attaching magnets so you can use the clip to hang something. What do you think of that idea? Share your thoughts on these ideas or any suggestions. I look forward to seeing your comments.

I am Blessed my family is at home.  My cousin, with his family will be here tomorrow.

I am a happy girl!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is a list of items used and where I purchased them:
Dollar Store
 1 package Butterfly paper clips Small 10 count  $ 1.00
 1 package Butterfly paper clips Large 8 count    $ 1.00
 1 Pencil Cup Holder ( Wire Mesh Silver)           $ 1.00
 Michael's
 I used Xyron Permanent Sticker
 Scrapbook Paper
 E6000 glue
 Steals.com
 Twine
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