Ornament Swap - still some spots available + Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone! Although we had filled all the spots I have one additional person who'd like to join so I'm going to open up another group of 5 people. We need 4 more to fill the group. Email me if you're interested - deb damboise [at] comcast [dot] net. See HERE for all the details.

Thanks! :)

And TRICK OR TREAT!!! My kids are dressing as bumble bees. :) I tried taking pictures this morning and they definitely weren't cooperating so hopefully I can get a couple decent shots to share with you. Have a spooky and wonderful night!

Pottery Barn Peace Sign Light

Hi everyone! What a wonderful turnout for our Ornament Swap this year. Thank you to everyone who joined. I can't wait to get started on mine! I've e-mailed everyone their Group Addresses, so if you didn't receive an email from me, please let me know. :)

And, I'm sure many of you subscribe to Pottery Barn catalogues and e-mails. Last week I received the PBTeen e-mail and look at this adorable Peace Sign light! I love Pottery Barn! But the price tag? $150 bucks. The dimensions on this are 23.5". Our peace signs unfinished at that size are priced at $33 and you could easily paint and create something similar. Actually, one of our customers sent a picture of what she did with one. :) Peace signs are SO popular right now and I thought it was fun to see this.

I hope you all have a great week! Check in soon for our Guest Designer's project, the fabulous Tammy Hall Tutterow. I love her style and wait until you see her project!

Home Sweet Holiday Home HANDMADE ORNAMENT SWAP

It's that time again... I've had some e-mails from people asking if we'll be doing our swap again this year, so how could I not?! :) I'm really excited about the theme this year and already have a few ideas.

Here's the scoop....

I'm going to open it up to (2) groups of 5 for a total of 10 people so you'll only need to send 4 ornaments and get 4 back (you can make an extra one of your own to keep for yourself.) It's so much fun to bring out your ornaments each year.

The guidelines are simple:

1. Sign up for the swap by sending an email with the following information to debdamboise[at]comcast[dot]net by November 14th using ORNAMENT SWAP as the subject line. Include the following information:
- name
- address
- email address
- website or blog, if you have one
- whether your are willing to ship internationally

2. On November 16th (or sooner if it fills) you'll receive an email from us containing the addresses of 4-5 other swap participants to send your ornaments to.

3. Design an ornament that you can create multiples of and make your ornaments. The theme is Holiday Home which you can interpret however you'd like. Remember, you want to send something you'd be happy receiving yourself. Put some love in it. :)

4. Package your ornaments well...especially if you create anything fragile. We've had some glass ornaments break in the mail so take care in packaging them well.

5. Send one of your ornaments to each person on the list of 4 other swap participants in your group by December 5th .

6. Sit back, relax and wait as you receive your happy mail of 4 beautiful handmade ornaments!

Questions?

Is the swap open to international customers?
YES! Please let us know in your email sign-up if you are willing to ship internationally. What sort of materials can be used? Anything! Paper, wood, glass, sew, paint..have fun!

Who are the other people I'll be swapping with?
The other people on the swap list you receive on November 16th.

Will my address be on the internet anywhere?
No. The only people who will receive your address are the people you are swapping with.

What about shipping costs?
You are responsible for shipping costs for your ornaments...just as others are paying to ship ornaments to you.

For those of you new to swapping, it's very simple and a lot of fun! You will send out 4 ornaments, you can make five if you want to keep one for yourself, and you will receive four different handmade ornaments in the mail. How cool is that?!


Other questions? Email me! debdamboise[at]comcast[dot]net

Hope to hear from you soon! I can't wait. :)

Design Team Shares :: It's (almost) the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Hey Everyone! Did you have a nice weekend? Can you believe we got SNOW today. Hard to believe since there's still beautiful colored leaves on the trees. Luckily there's nothing that accumulated so hopefully we'll be safe for at least a month or so. :)

It's Design Team time and I'm SO excited to share this month's projects. Their two projects were our new (cute) "Jolly" letters. They're in a playful and chunky new Swedish Fish lettering style. The other project is our classic and popular Happy Homes Collection and they've each created such a pretty little village using them. Beautiful job again ladies!

The first project here is by Laurie. I'm so crazy about the papers she chose! I think the papers are just so pretty. Very me! HA! :) Many of the handmade embellishments you see on her letters can be found in her Etsy shop, Trinkets. Go check it out!

These are Raechelle's first Design Team project for us and I love what she did with these letters! The colors are so bright and cheerful and the sheer ribbon is such a nice touch. Rae cut strips of paper and layered them on the letters. I really like the fun look it created. You can visit her blog for more info on the project and papers she chose.

And the final project using these Jolly letters are by Julie Ann. She always has such fun ideas and this time was no different! She took apart a Bucilla felt stocking kit and covered the letters with them. They are so classic Christmas. I love them so much!!

These adorable houses are by Rachel and are also her first project for the Design Team. She created a really sweet snowy effect with her houses. The chimney's and the swirls of pearl and snowflakes. You can visit her blog for more details and the products she chose.

And last, but certainly not least is our favorite new mommy, Kory. :) Her houses are vintage inspired with pretty lace, buttons and the sweetest sayings on each house. Very merry, Home for the Holidays, and Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Adorable!

Thanks for checking in! Hope you're all doing well. Check in this week for our Guest Designer's project.

I've had a few e-mails too and will definitely be posting info on our Handmade Ornament Swap shortly too!

Have a fun day!!

Summer Dance Girly Dress as seen in Simply Handmade Magazine

Didja see us? We were thrilled to be featured again in Simply Handmade's fabulous magazine. Stephanie Yanik's adorable Summer Dance girly dress was shown in the Aug/Sept. issue of the magazine. They even did a cool step by step tutorial of the project.

A great big thank you to Stephanie!! A box of goodies are on the way to you. :) And a BIG thank you to Paige and the entire crew of Simply Handmade for our feature.

If you have a project published in a magazine featuring our products, let us know and we'll send some FREE product to you as a thank you.

Have a wonderful day!!

thanks + fabulous Halloween project

I am really touched by all the baby love. Thank you so much. It feels good to share it. :)

With Halloween just around the corner, I wanted to post this adorable project by new Design Team member, Jennifer. She took our Happy Home Collection and broke it up into 2 projects. The first one is this spooky-chic candle holder. Some of the details I love are the sequins and spider web roofline and the googly eyes along the bottom. Here's how she created the project.




I used the middle house and the smallest house to make a candle holder. The small house is the base that I glued the middle sized one to. There are little teeth in the door and German glass glitter lining the inside of the windows and door. I rubbed stickles into the tulle "smoke" to make that sparkle too.


Supplies:
Trim - Fabric Barn, Bazzill
Google Eyes - Michael's
Diecut - Little Yellow Bicycle
Paper - Bazill, Basic Grey
Ink - Colorbox, Tattered Angels
Punches - Martha Stewart
Glitter - Stickles, Jolee Jane
Paint - KaiserCraft
Candle - Partylite

And with the large house, she created a "Welcome to our Home" sign to give to her sister who just bought a house. Sweet housewarming gift, isn't it?

Supplies:
Paper - Webster's Pages
Stick Pin, Tulle - Inland Wholesale Floral
Ribbon - Stampin' Up, Creative Impressions
Page Pebble, Flowers - Prima
Ink - Tattered Angels, Colorbox
Paint - Michael's
Punch - Fiskars
Alphas - Making Memories
Buttons - 7 Gypsies




Enjoy Jennifer's projects. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

some personal news to share...

Hello everyone in blogland! I've been wanting to post all week and had some problems with our server but it seems to be up and running now.

Aren't my two getting big?? I love this new picture of them. Next week they'll be 18 months. Time is passing way too quickly.

My news to share is that there is a NEW baby on the way!! Yup - baby #3! He or she is due May 4th when the twins will have just turned two. I'm hoping they are somewhat excited about the addition to our family. :) I've been feeling pretty good so far. Just tired mostly.

Hope you all have a wonderful day! Thanks for checking in.