Handmade Holidays hoppin' GIVEAWAY

With Halloween done, I am excited to get into the holiday season. When I was younger, Thanksgiving was always a time that my family would drive into Los Angeles to see my grandparents. MY mother's family would all gather together, and I would have a chance to see them all and catch up with my cousins. I have fond memories of spending Thanksgiving night with my grandfather passing out our leftovers families less fortunate than ours and that maybe didn't have a whole lot of family in the area to celebrate with. I can still remember the grateful happy faces each year as we brought our meager offerings that meant so much to these families.

What I love about Thanksgiving is the beautiful memories that I have of my family spending time together. It fills my heart each year. This year we will not be able to go home for the holidays so we will be on our own for Thanksgiving in Colorado. Although it does make me a bit sad, my hope is that I can help to create new memories for our family and make the best of it. Nothing beats family, but even just a little family of five getting together is enough to be thankful for.

This year I am making custom name tags for the five of us. It isn't much but it will help to give our kids a little something personal to have on their seat when we sit down for dinner.

 Leather and Wood ScanNCut holiday Place cards

supplies: ScanNCut electronic cutting machine by Brother International (TM) , Wood veneer paper by Splash of Color, Cardstock by Die Cuts with a View, Leather (found at local craft store) button from Little Yellow Bicycle, Ink from Clearsnap ink and stamps are Liz Hicks artisan designs for Unity Stamp Co.

For this project I started off with a few simple items. I had a left over leather flower that I had cut out with my ScanNCut by Brother International (TM) so I knew I wanted to add it in some how.

I picked colors of cardstock and a wood veneer paper to create a warm color concept with some text.

 

 First start by cutting 5x5 squares out of your base cardstock. For your next piece (the wood veneer paper) cut it 1/2 inch smaller than half of your card (so when the card is folded, cut your second piece a 1/2 inch small then the front of your folded card)

Proceed to adhere your wood veneer paper to our card.

Next, take your off white paper and cut it 1/2 in smaller than your wood veneer paper. Use your favorite stamp to add accents to your white on the right side. For this project I used my licensed  stamps set from Unity Stamp Co.

Next take some foam squares and crafty power tape and put your name card together.

 Here is the card blank, You can add names and stitching if you'd like to make it more decorative.

I have added my name to this one... I think I will make a different one for each of us based on what we all like, or it might even be fun to have a member of the family decorate each others...  overall the basis of the name cards is to have something special at your dinner and to provide some family fun time.

Here is a bit of detail of the leather I cut in my ScanNCut. I used my deep blade at a 12 setting and cut it twice to make sure it cut all the way through. Now this may be to deep for your settings, so always make sure that you start low and and work your way up.

So here is a list of the other blogs that are participating in today's hop but I want to make sure that you head on over to Denise Hahn's blog as she is next on the list from here... Check out her AMAZING work here: Denise Hahn- http://inmyblueroom.blogspot.com/

And if you want to pop around to the other participants here you go!

November 3:

Clearsnap http://blog.clearsnap.com

Craft Attitude  http://www.jonathanfongstyle.com/blog/

Smoothfoam http://www.smoothfoam.com/blog/

Donna Salazar Designs  http://donnasalazardesigns.blogspot.com/

Walnut Hollow http://walnuthollowcrafts.wordpress.com/

100 Proof Press http://www.100proofpress.com/_blog/Blog

Graphic45 http://g45papers.typepad.com/

ICE Resin http://iceresin.com/icequeen/

Stampendous http://stampendousblog.wordpress.com/

Sizzix – Eileen Hull Designs http://eileenhull.blogspot.com/

Jamie Dougherty http://www.jamiedoughertydesigns.com/#!blogger-feed/c12za

Nathalie Kalbach www.nathaliesstudio.com

Jen Goode http://www.100directions.com/

Kathy Cano-Murillo http://www.craftychica.com/site/

Tanner Bell   http://www.craftteen.com

Jennifer Priest http://hydrangeahippo.com

Jen Cushman http://jencushman.wordpress.com/

Adrienne Ford http://bry-and-i.blogspot.com/

Joanne Fink http://www.zenspirations.com/home/

Vicki O'Dell http://vickiodell.com/

Liz Hicks http://blogerisms.blogspot.com/   (YOU ARE HERE, Yay!)

Denise Hahn http://inmyblueroom.blogspot.com/

Courtney Chambers http://www.alittlecraftinyourday.com

Tami Mayberry http://tamimayberry.blogspot.com/

Norma Rapko http://normarapko.blogspot.com/

I love this time of year and that I get to work with some amazing designers... It really starts to feel like the holidays when you can get together with friends and feel festive in a fun and crafty way. It is a warm welcome to some family time and I love it so much ♥

I hope this project encourages you to take even just a quick minute to create a custom and personal feel to your holiday... there are so many ways to do this, I would love to hear what you are planning.

Thanks for stopping my today!

xoxo,

Liz Hicks