Welcome to Everything but the Kitchen Sink’s sixth challenge! This challenge is so fun because it is to use wrapping paper! I bet you guys have a lot of that hanging around!
I decided to make these pom pom flowers that are oh so popular right now. They are so fun to make. I had fun creating them in front of the TV. I am definitely keeping them in mind to put on presents in the future! The letters are Making Memories and SO glittery. Messy but super cute!
The ribbon is also off of a present I received. The patterned paper is from the Torendi Modern Red kit. I am in love with it! Don’t you just want to make a wish on a Dandelion now? 🙂

We have a wonderful prize this week : A $25 gift certificate from Verve Stamps! How cool is that! The challenge will run until midnight CST on Jan. 8th and the winner will be announced Jan. 12. Don’t forget to go to this post here to find Mr. Linky. Also check out all of the other EbtKS girls! Their links are to the right! 🙂

Tomorrow the hubs and I close on our first house! We still can’t believe it! Then the day after is New Year’s Eve! We are going to be celebrating our new house, the new year and 10 years of Mike + Kelly! We met when we were 18 and 19 and haven’t been apart since. I love my Mike and am so excited to spend the next million years with him :). Okay, enough sap from me :).
I promised to tell you guys about Cuban New Year’s Eve traditions. They are so fun! At midnight we eat 12 grapes with each gong of the clock (I never can quite eat them that quickly). These grapes signify the 12 months of the year and help bring you luck for those months. The other tradition we do is throwing water over your back shoulder. The water represents all the bad things from the previous year and by tossing them away backwards you are moving on with a fresh start. So you can imagine all the New Year’s kisses, toasts, drinking, grape eating and water throwing going on at once is madness, but it is so fun!
I wish you all a healthy and happy new year filled with endless joy. If any of you eat grapes or throw water, let me know! 🙂

More Blue Skies from me. I just can’t help it! Haha! I love their dimensional stickers. They have such cute details and make a great quickie card! I also love this Martha loop punch for grass now. I think it works so well!
The “love birds” rub-on was originally laid out with “love” on top of “birds”. I wanted a different look, so I just cut apart the rub-on and applied them side by side. I love that you can do that with rub-ons!

I am off to California tomorrow. There is a lot of snow here, so I hope our plane can take off! It will be nice to get back home. Mike and I close on our first house on the 30th! We are super excited!! There is a lot of stuff coming up in the next few days, so if you don’t see me here on the blog or twitter, it’s probably because I don’t have internet access!

I hope you are all enjoying the last day of the weekend!

Welcome to the Etsy Inspired Challenge #68! This week’s inspiration shop is the Gypsy Rose Handbags shop. There is so much to be seen here! Here are my inspirations this week:

I decided to pick up on the flourish and houndstooth patterns while using the bright colors of the middle bag!
I cut this butterfly out with my Slice and heat embossed the patterns from the bags onto the butterflies and then layered them over each other with foam adhesive. I slightly curved the edges of the butterflies to give it some dimension.
I just love that Blue Skies patterned paper on the bottom. It is just so sweet!

I hope you will come play along with us this week at Etsy Inspired! Here is the prize:
– Everyday Adorable stamp set by Unity! Such a cool prize!

Here is what you need to do to play along:
– Visit Gypsy Rose Handbags shop and find an item that inspires you
– Create a project of your own
– Post a link to your project on this post by Friday, January 1st at noon PST.

I so look forward to seeing your fun creations! Also, check out the design team links on the right hand side for more inspiration. This is also my last week as a guest designer for Etsy Inspired. I had such a blast. Thank you so much, Etsy Inspired gals, for inviting me along! I look forward to playing along in more Etsy Inspired challenges!

Also, I hope you all are having wonderful holidays. I have had a great Christmas with my family here in Chicago. I still have a few more days to enjoy the beautiful snow, then it’s back to California to celebrate the New Year! I absolutely love New Year’s Eve. Cubans have a lot of fun (aka funny) traditions! I will tell you all about them when we get closer!

Lots of hugs to my crafty pals! I am so thankful for all of you!