- P. Kelly Smith
Welcome to Freebie Friday! I think I’m still in denial about Christmas being three weeks away. I’ll let you in on a little secret…I still have NOT put up my Christmas tree or holiday decor. (I’m sure Jennifer and Brandy are gasping in horror as they read this!) I promise it will get done this weekend. It has to. Did I mention Christmas is three weeks away?
My grandma and I will be attending the Festival of Trees on Saturday. (Hopefully you read Jennifer’s post and saw pictures of our beautiful tree!) Once I return home, the rest of the day will be dedicated to opening boxes and wrestling ornaments away from Devil Dog. Lexus is not really evil – she just has evil tendencies. But when her mom dresses her up like a glorified reindeer, what do you expect?
Lexus the White-Nosed Reindeer
Besides her obvious pained expression, doesn’t she look cute? I’ve always been a sucker for little critters – especially when they’re all dressed up for the holidays! So it’s no surprise that I instantly fell in love with the shaped critter cards we featured in our November/December issue. In my humble opinion, Paper Crafts Go-to Gal Teri Anderson is the queen of shaped cards. She literally dreams up these designs, makes her own patterns and then embellishes them in her cute, Teri way. It’s almost like they come to life!
Even though he's not a critter, Teri's Triangle Santa Card makes me squeal with ho-ho-ho delight!
And don't even get me started on Teri's Christmas Owl Card! Love the personality on this guy!
But let’s not forget fellow Paper Crafts Go-to Gal Kim Hughes…her Not a Creature was Stirring Card not only made our November/December cover, but it was the perfect addition to our All Creatures Great & Small feature. To create the body of the mouse, she traced a mug to get the perfect half circle!
I love how Kim cut out the ear flap and made a festive little night cap, complete with pompom.
If you’re looking to make some playful Christmas cards, these three designs have cute written all over them. To download the patterns for Teri’s two shaped cards, please click HERE. Instructions can be found in our November/December issue on pages 40 and 69, respectively. For complete instructions for Kim’s mouse card, please turn to p. 70.
Ready for today’s giveaway? Since I’m happily living in denial about the time of year, I’m giving away spring-infused critter product! Leave a comment telling me where you are in your Christmas decorating process: completely done, almost done or not even started. I’ll pick two winners to take home an assortment of American Crafts Blue Skies collection! All comments must be received by midnight (MDT) on Sunday, Dec. 6.
Two lucky winners will win an assortment of this fun product!
Here’s to the critters!
Kelly
P.S. It’s time to announce the winner from Kim Kesti’s December Daily Album post!
Anita Surrett (Dec. 2, 5:42 a.m.)
Congrats, Anita! You’ve won Close To My Heart’s chipboard album, their Reminisce stamp set and some fun holiday papers. I’ll be contacting you shortly to get your mailing address. Thanks to all who left comments!
P.P. S. Our two-week Inspired By challenge ends at 9 a.m. on Monday! If you’ve been “inspired by” a project in one of our magazines, create a new project and upload it to our Inspired By Flickr group. You could be one of our three winners that walks away with a free subscription or special issue of your choice! Click HERE for all the details!
I still have my fall stuff up. I don’t decorate for Christmas bc I don’t celebrate (religious reasons).
I’m at that stage where I have all the durable ornaments on the tree and the stocking hanger up without stockings. I have 2 toddler boys, so I hesitate putting anything up that they can pull down….LOL! Right before Christmas everything will be decked out for photo opps!
Hi everyone!
Thanks for the compliments on my Santa and Owl card!
And Kelly, awwwww!
Teri
Paper Crafts Go-to-Gal
We have not started to decorate yet. But all my christmas cards are done!
I’m happy to say that I just started! Part of the enjoyment is getting things out and reminiscing.
Yep–it’s still Thanksgiving around here–at least it looks like it. Probably this weekend is the time to take down the turkeys and start putting up the lights.
Decorate—yikes! I haven’t decorated for two years since we have been so busy–but hopefully my husband will put some things up this weekend:) Fingers crossed! WHAT A GIVEAWAY:) LOVE IT:)
I am horrified to say, not even started! Ack! It is going to have to happen this weekend though!
Lisa A.
The house is decorated, the outside lights and ornaments are up, but alas, I am waiting for my husband to help with the tree. In the meantime I am working on Christmas cards and am pretending that I have plenty of time to get the shopping done!
I’m almost there. We ordered a live wreath from our church’s Boy Scout troop, and that’s arriving this weekend. So I do need to get a new wreath hanger for our front door and move the old wreath to another door in the house – but that’ll be it for me!
I say “me” because my hubby is supposed to do the outdoor lights.
Has he started? No. Not even. He may not even get them up – and really, they’re just a couple of net lights for our bushes. So I’ll just say I’m done.
Decorating???? DECORATING!? Now that there are no helpers left at home, we’re lucky to put up a tree…..and so far it’s not in the plans. Too many cards and gifts to make.
~Shari R.
Decorations have been taken out of storage, the tree is up (no lights or ornaments YET), outside house lights sitting IN the garage! Yikes, I guess I have to add a new category to your comments ~ I am barely started! Why does Christmas sneak up on me every single year????
completely done–thank you!
I would love a little Spring about now. We’re expecting snow tomorrow in VA. And I’ve only lived in FL up until 6 months ago. I’m not ready for snow.
I’ve got my decorations out, but not the tree decorated bc we have NO TREE! My husband was deployed last year, so our stuff was in storage. Apparently the year before that, we got rid of our artificial tree. Now, the search for a perfect tree was supposed to start tomorrow, but our daughter has a fever. Ugh.
Send me some spring PLEASE
We haven’t started. But I like to have the tree and other decorations up closer to Christmas- I think in one week we’ll be done.
We are done decorating. I make myself do it the weekend after Thanksgiving or I never get caught up.
Shopping is almost done but decorating……………not even started. Oie!
i haven’t started decorating yet…:(
I plan on starting tommorrow – have to do some cleaning first !!
I have done absolutely nothing! Argh!
Normally I start making my Xmas cards on Nov. 11 and have them all mailed out by the end of the second week in December – but so far I’ve only done FOUR cards, out of FIFTY! Stop the world and let me catch up!
LOL
This Spring Collection is too cute. I love American Crafts. Well the Christmas Decoratings around the house are all up (YAY), but the Christmas Tree is not. It was suppose to go up today but with me and the lil one sick (fighting some bug) it didn’t happen.It will be up by this Sunday (I promise).
I am totally done, done decorating, done shopping, done period, yeah me!
Oh my goodness, those cards are adorable! I’ve done NO xmas decorations as of yet. And I don’t even know when I plan to start! YIKES!
ummmmmmm…. (shhh….. haven’t started yet…….) yep, hanging my head in shame here….. waiting for hubby to have a free weekend so we can go out to the woods to get our tree.
I love the santa card, too cute. I have most of our decorations up. Tomorrow the lights go up outside.
I won’t be decorating as we won’t be home but I do have the shopping all done for the gifts I plan to get. Now its all just fun.
Not a Christmas decor box has been opened yet! My Halloween and fall stuff is still out.. Sunday might be the day…
BTW – love the bunny papers:)
I had company coming over yesterday so I had to quickly HIDE all the Thanksgiving decorations and sprinkle a few Christmas things around the house, so I wouldn’t look so behind
But, this weekend will be dedicated to tree purchasing and decorating! Jennifer
Great Christmas cards and such yummy goodies from American Crafts! I’m terribly afraid to say I haven’t even started decorating OR shopping yet! Yikes!
All finished “decorating” because we keep it very simple for the holidays. The wreath and garland add a splash of festiveness on and around the mantel, and the spiced cider candles are lit. Add the glow and warmth of a fire in the fireplace, some holiday music, hot tea or cocoa, and some snuggling with my husband as we watch the snow falling on the mountains outside our window—and it’s the perfect holiday setting!! No panic, no chaos, no fuss!!! And lots of time to simply enjoy the spirit of the holiday season!!!
I have one wreath up! Running a little late this year!!
We do just a little decorating, so we’re already done!
Ugh, my fall wreath still on my front door. Like you, not even started . . . but that will change this weekend!
I have all my indoor and outdoor decorating done. I am especially glad that I finished my outdoor lights because it has turned cold, cold here.
I’m done. Tree, lights, home decor. Only thing left is cookies.
My dh wrapped the garland and lights around the railing on our porch today, and that’s about all that has been done as far as decorating. I don’t think I’ll do much this year, though, as we’re doing Christmas Day at ds and ddil’s this year. I’ll do a little though and put up the tree, as dd, her SO and her 14 yr. old ds will be here for a couple of days. It’s just starting to get cold here, but I’m ready for spring weather already! LOL! ~Bev~
Although I created all of my gifts during the summer, I have yet to pull down the Christmas decorating boxes from the attic as of yet. So much for getting things done early! LOL
What a gorgeous giveaway – that would look divine under my tree *wink wink*
My boyfriend already put up and decorated the tree a few days ago – we always start our decorations on the 1st of December.
What?? You mean it’s Christmas? Again????
I have not even started my Christmas decorating process….
Yikes, I haven’t started!! But I will be this weekend – my husband is chomping at the bit!!
I am finished with my decorating
we started the day after Thanksgivng and have added a few things – now the big push is on for making prsents!
I hauled my boxes of decorations out of storage and have unpacked a couple of things, but we are in the midst of remodeling our bathroom and I don’t want to get dust all over the decorations. Hope it is done BEFORE Christmas because the whole family is coming (thus the need for the new bathroom!).
I am done shopping and done decorating! Just have the meal to plan.
OMG!! Three weeks??? Is that all??? Help!!! I haven’t started…oh wait..I have made 1 card. Isn’t that terrible? I’d like to say there are reasons..and there are. But, truth is, I can’t get inspired yet. Maybe winning this “Spring” giveaway will do the trick!! If not…I’d best get BUSY!
I haven’t even started. We’re in the process of moving cross country and are flying off this island. We will shop for Christmas on Christmas eve day when we are back in the states. Ugh. I can’t believe Christmas is in 3 weeks!
I LOVE these card patterns and will try the Santa one for my great-nephew soon! As for decorating, I’m almost done! I decorate my mantle (done), pull out a 4′ kitchen tree (done), and have matching wreaths in two sizes – one just decorated in white lights for over the garage (on my DH’s honey-do list), and one I decorate for the front door (needs a bit of updating and is on MY to-do list for hopefully today)! TFS and thanx for the blog candy opp!
Have to get on my crafting now that much of my shopping and decorating is done……have not even got ready to send cards-still have to make them! ;0)
Decorating? What? My Christmas tree is currently decorating the lobby of the community theatre where my hubby and I are directing a show. My house isn’t getting any decorations at ALL this year!! :\
I am done most of my decorating, but still have the garland and lights to do on my staircase. Now my Christmas shopping? Not even close. This holiday is sneaking up on me. Blue Skies is a gorgeous line and I would love to play with it.