Vote for the 2012 Minted Holiday Collection!

Hellooooooo!! It's been a while. How are things? I've wanted to pop over and catch everyone up on what is going on around here, but things haven't slowed down enough to do that proper. I plan on it, though -- a detailed, photo-filled post. But in the meantime, let's talk holiday cards. I know it's hard to believe with school just getting out and summer beach vacations starting that I'm saying that, but I am! Many of you know that I've been working with a company called Minted for a few years now. Last year, I had the opportunity to launch a line of holiday cards with them, and I will be doing the same this year. In order to help them decide which designs to sell, they need your input! SO crank up that A/C, grab a blanket and cozy up to your computer. You can find direct links to all of my submissions in this post, or to see them together, you can sort "by designer" on the Minted voting page. 1. Simply Blessed // 2. Urbane // 3. Sending Cheer // 4. The Top Five // 5. A Wonderful Life // 6. Counting Our Blessings 1. Holiday Graffiti // 2. Glad Tidings // 3. Script Merry // 4. Grand // 5. Timeless Greeting // 6. Nutcracker Wonder // 7. Kinship

There are some truly amazing designs in the challenge this year, and Minted really wants to know what potential customers would like to buy. Hop on over and let your voice be heard! And if you have time to vote for at least 50, Minted will even give you a gift:
 

PS: There will be two rounds of voting for the holiday challenge because of the large number of submissions. I'll be sure to post when it's time for the second round!

b.wise papers for Minted // Valentines

It's time to start thinking about sending the love! I've got several new Valentine designs at Minted this year. Here's a little sampling:


[Happy Love Day]


[Bold XOXO] There's a complementing stationery set for this design [shown in the banner at the bottom].

Some classroom Valentines for the kiddos:


[Be Mine Classroom Valentine]


[Alien Classroom Valentine]

And don't forget address labels! Minted's signature skinny wrap label is an excellent addition to any envelope:


[Bold XOXO Skinny Wrap Address Label]

Find more designs in my Minted Storefront!

Joy to You

The two versions of our holiday cards this year! The first is an accordion style that I'd been wanting to try, and Laura's photography was excellent motivation. I love the way it turned out.




I tried out some gold envelopes on these that I'm thinking about adding to the b.wise collection.



The second is a 5x7" version. I always like to have a traditional size version in case I ever get around to making that holiday card album that has been on my list.



My sincerest hopes that you and yours find much joy this holiday season. Merry, merry!

Round Here

Hi! I'm afraid in all the hurly-burly of card season, the old blog here has taken a hit. To make up for that, I'm going to try for an extra long post. Curious what's been going on around here?

Letters to Santa:





(The letter template is a b.wise original, which I have available for free download right here!*)

Fred's back:



I've tried to be a little more creative this year with his spot because I fear that this may be the last year that my oldest gets into it. Their favorite place so far was when Fred was in the Halloween candy bowl [yes, I know Halloween was a month and a half ago]. I opened up a candy bar and pinch a little corner off and had it sitting in his lap. When they discovered him in the morning, they came bounding back into our room shouting "Fred's eating candy!! Isn't that crazy?!" Mind you, these exciting spots are only once in a while -- there's only so much time I can put into this at the moment!

Our tree is up, and I get to look at all my favorite ornaments:



Do you vote white or multicolor lights? For my tree, I vote white, but I'd love to have some multicolor lights outside.

There's been lots of packaging going on:



Only now I need to start in on actual presents! Have you done your Christmas shopping yet? I've got a ways to go myself.

I have started in on holiday card addressing. I designed two different ones for us this year -- more on that after I've sent them out!



That's all from here for now!

*THE FREE DOWNLOAD IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY AND REMAINS COPYRIGHTED TO B.WISE PAPERS. Please feel free to spread the word just make sure you link it back here. Thanks, and enjoy!!

Advent Calendars

You have one more day to make one of your own, so here's some inspiration! I especially love the animal one [#3] -- I'd want to keep that up all year long. And the clean crispness of #4 would make what's inside so colorful and exciting. It could be anything!

I always tell myself that I'm going to make one, but it just doesn't happen because of how busy things are with holiday cards this time of year. I'm really thinking about making one in the summer to put up for December so I can actually do it on time! So this year, same as last year, the boys have Lego Advent calendars. And they could not be more excited. Star Wars + Legos + getting to open something every single day = happy boys.

And I'd love to know: did you make one? If so, what did you put in it?!

IMAGE SOURCES: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE & SIX

Punkin Pie

We had lots!



What's your point?



Hope you did, too!

The Thanksgiving Table

A little inspiration to get you in the mood for turkey!



I love a good table setting, especially with wood, white, gold and greens, but the thing I'm most excited about are the faces that will be around our table this year. We're hosting, so have family coming from all around to join us. Hope yours is a Happy one!

[Sources: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX]

Thanksgiving Trees

This past Wednesday I went to Spencer's school to make Thanksgiving trees with some of the kids in his grade. For those who don't know, a Thanksgiving tree is where you record the things you're thankful for and hang them on the tree. They loved it. And it was relatively easy to put together.

My supplies:



-- A branch tree that Reg and I put together. [see below]
-- Paper circles that I cut out of metallic card stock with a circle punch and then punched holes in with a hole punch.
-- White pens. Very exciting.
-- Twine, which we didn't end up using a lot of -- the holes in the circles slipped right on most of the branches.
-- Jingle bells, to give the trees a little bling. They all loved this, by the way. Not only are they shiny, but their trees jingle. Good stuff.



To make the branch trees, Reg sawed a larger branch from a tree that had fallen in our yard into little bases. He drilled a hole in the middle, and -- this is where things get exciting -- I glue-gunned the smaller branches into them. I love any excuse to get my glue gun out.



They love looking at their little tags and talking about what they wrote. Spencer really likes his one that says "Toy 100% luve."



The good news is that Mom got luve 100% too.



So did Dad.



And a personal favorite of mine from Henry's tree:



Me. Too.

Halloween // 2011

The kids had a blast trick or treating last night, as always. The boys were decked out in their full Star Wars gear and M was an owl. I don't know what it is about Star Wars, but both boys have been obsessed since they could first speak. Never tire of it. I'm not crazy about the so-called "blasters," but I know that even if they didn't have those, they would've found sticks and starting making the blasting noises themselves.



I made M's costume! It was totally easy, and I'm now completely obsessed with my glue gun. I don't sew [wish that I could and hope to one day!], so I got the idea for the shape of the feathers here and the glue gunning felt onto an existing outfit here. For the mask, I bought a foam one and cut out the felt shape to glue on top. She wasn't crazy about it being over her eyes, so for most of the night it was propped up on her forehead. I'm telling you, it took me one afternoon to make this, including a trip to JoAnn's for the felt.



She was a little more into things this year, and was completely fascinated by all the costumes. Sometimes she'd walk right up to someone in a scary costume, point at them and say "bad guy." So funny. I wish I had more pictures of the boys, but they were not interested in the camera or being still for one second. It was hard to keep up with them this year, running so fast from house to house!

The Fourth

Hope yours was a good one!

Counting Down the Days

My boys have been counting down the days until Christmas for some time now. Last year, they had Lego advent calendars that they loved. I had a hard time finding them this year, though, so I'm on the lookout for something else. And yes, I realize that it is already December 2nd, but they aren't really at the age where they would care too much about missing a few days.



I think I'd like the way this canvas one [above] from Kikki K canvas advent calendar looked better than they would. Unless I filled those pockets with lots of goodies!



Another canvas one [left] from Pilosale. Same deal here -- I like the white, clean lines, while they would probably want something bright and full of treats. If you check out her site, be sure to look at the super cool car bingo set
[right].

And I love the Nouveau Design Brooklyn and Amsterdam calendars:



Unfortunately, only a limited number were produced of each. And again, I'd probably like it more than they would. Which leaves me with what? Probably another trip to the store to see if there any toy or candy ones lurking on the shelves!

I have grand visions of making my own, but time seems to go by so quickly this time of year...



I'm going to try and make myself start on this project early for next year. If I can just plan + shop ahead a little it would be fun for the kids. [I don't know the source of the left image -- do you?; right from Country Living]

Do you have a fun advent or "counting down" tradition?

The Cherry on Top

I received a precious pair of baby bloomers for Maggie from a friend of my mothers. Not only was the gift itself adorable, but the packaging brought a smile to my face -- on the outside of the bag, the seamstress had sewn the monogram that was used on the bloomers:

Definitely the cherry on top!

Here are some other ideas for spicing up all your packages this holiday season:




[From top to bottom: ormolu Christmas alphabet tags; farouche dandy tags; Petit Papetier envelope labels; PaperEclectiques naughty or nice tags]

I finally got around to wrapping some presents this weekend -- I'm so disappointed in my wrapping paper this year [not the one shown below; that's pretty much the only good roll I have] but considering all that has been going on, it's just going to have to do. I'll just hit the sales after Christmas to stock up for next year! Anyway, I figured if I designed a cute tag, then maybe the recipients wouldn't notice the tacky paper...hope it works!

A Martha Halloween

I was looking for ideas for carving our pumpkin and saw so many great images and ideas over on Martha's website. She's covered everything -- from costumes to pumpkins to treats. If I hadn't just had a baby, I'd be seriously tempted to try some of these out...

>