Cheers to a New Year!

Lori has a festive layout to share just in time for the New Year. Mostly she used elements from the Kris Kringle collection.

It's fun to see the festive papers and gold accents transformed from Christmas to New Year's celebrations. The wine glass cut outs and playful type help carry the theme.

We hope you will have a great celebration tonight and a New Year full of "getting it right". Anyone have any scrapbooking/paper-crafting resolutions?

Merry and Bright

We hope you are ready to start your winter and holiday scrapbooking because Julie has two unique layouts that will knock your socks off! Isn't it amazing that these both come from the Kris Kringle collection?

MERRY & BRIGHT
Here's a tip from Julie. "If your looking for a way to 'contain' your layout - try adding a few layers of cardstock to help "frame the inner patterned paper. Then create a fun doodled border to give your 'frame' a little pizazz!!!"

Take in all the details.

Did you notice how she cut around the swirls, added the gems to some of the snowflake centers, and layered her embellishments?

CHRISTMAS MORNING
Julie said, "Photo collages are a great way to fit multiple pictures on your pages. On this layout I created a 4 square collage & then mimicked this above and below the collage with squares of patterned paper. To offset the corners of the inner portion of this layout, I added some fun focal points. In the top left corner & bottom right corner I layered up a few of SEI's fabulous die-cuts with pop dots - a fun way to add dimension & balance to the layout!!!"


Once again, great details, especially the embellishment layering. Lovely job, Julie!

Leah l'Orange, ready for takeoff! + GIVEAWAY

HELLOOOOOOOOO crafty friends! This is Leah l'Orange, bringing you my GRAND FINALE for my week of guest blogging at SEI Lifestyle! Thank you to the SEI team for inviting me to do this, and for taking such good care of me this week. It has TRULY been my pleasure to be here!

I mentioned earlier this week that I was asked if I'd like to play with the Kris Kringle collection for my guest blogging projects, and I was VERY excited about that, but I was when asked if there was another line I really liked, Jocelyn was the first that came to mind. I'd only ever seen the paper stack in our big box store, but I was disappointed I hadn't seen any embellishments. At any rate, I couldn't be more pleased with it now that I've had the opportunity to play with it! I decided to do something a little extra special with my Jocelyn stuff, and my tree was looking a little bare.....

So here is it NOW, half-decorated with my usual ribbons and a new batch of ornaments!

I altered some chipboard to cover it with my Jocelyn papers, then I busted out the UTEE and went to town. Honestly, that's ALL I had to do to create these cute little ornaments (I combined the UTEE with Versamark, and just did two layers on each side), poked the holes and threaded 'em all with silver string.

Here's what the TOP of the tree looks like right now:

And a couple of fuller shots to show you how they hang amidst the branches:

They're SO easy to make - the only thing that seems to take a while is the sanding for my clean edges. Besides that, as long as everything is handy, it's a snap!

This one's my favorite:

But my son likes this one best:

And a few close-ups...

What do you think? I love how the bold colors contrast so nicely against the white tree and everything just POPS! And I used up a bunch of chipboard - something with which I often struggle. This was a fun project for me, and my tree is going to look FABULOUS in another week, after I've made a couple DOZEN of these little ornaments! Here's the whole family together:

Before I sign off, I want to remind you that this is your final chance to comment and get in the running to win a 12x12 paper pad and the Glittering Romance die-cut pack from the gorgeous new With All My Heart line! Feel free to go back and comment on any of the posts since last Friday, and visit my blog, The Chronicles of Orange, on MONDAY, December 20th to find out who won!

Happy crafting, dear friends, and happiest holidays and warmest wishes to you and yours.

Love,
Leah, Kris and Jocelyn ;)
xo

Thanks, Leah! It has been a treat to have you. We love your excitement and great projects. Don't those ornaments look so fun to make?

Guess what?! Not only is Leah having a giveaway for those who commented on the blog this week, we are having a giveaway too. To enter to win some Jocelyn and Kris Kringle product, leave a comment on this post by Sunday, December 19th at midnight MST. Tell us which of Leah's posts was your favorite this week. We will announce the winner on Monday. Be sure to check back to see if you are the winner. If we don't hear from the winner within a week we will have to pick a new one.

Leah loves Kris, and a giveaway reminder!

Hello, crafty people! Leah l'Orange visiting again! It's Thursday, and that means there's only ONE more day left of my guest blogging here at SEI Lifestyle, so I hope you enjoy today's little tidbits. Tomorrow will be a fun one, so be sure to visit as I get things wrapped up and ready to give away some free treats!

I want to take a moment to tell you of the fabulosity that is Kris Kringle. There are a LOT of holiday lines available right now, but in my humble opinion, NONE of them can hold a candle to what SEI has given us with Kris Kringle. There are some classic styles, of course:

because while many of us like to add a little flair, it's important to have a good, solid foundation. These types of papers give us exactly that!

Then there are the CUTE classic elements, like candy canes and presents and little birdies:

because most of us are big kids with fond memories of art class in kindergarten, when we had fun playing with scissors and glue (and macaroni!)...

But when you want something totally DIFFERENT, there is just nothing out there to compete with good ol' Kris himself!
He's the reason I fell head over heels in love with this collection. He's fun, he's got charm, he's playful but dashing... Check him out!

and he's so versatile! These are the reasons why Kris and I got to be great friends over the last week, and also the reason why I need to grab myself another collection so I'll have it all for next year's holiday cards and favors!

Kris and I hope you are enjoying this holiday season, and although it's usually pretty frantic for everyone who celebrates (or has to drive in the traffic, or work in retail!), we encourage you to take some time to spread a little bit of

JOLLY!

Be sure to leave a comment here, and on any or all posts this week, for your chance to win a 12x12 pad of With All My Heart paper and matching Glittering Romance die-cuts! If you're just joining us, be sure to go back to Friday's post where it all started, so you don't miss anything (or any chances to win!).

Warmest winter wishes,
Leah and Kris

On the 7th & 8th Days...

On the 7th day of Christmas, Julie gave to us, a super sweet spool tree!

 
Here's Julie's tree making advice:

"I created the altered wood tree by painting raw wood spools with green paint and then spritzing them with some gold mist.  Next I covered the body of the spools with a variety of green patterned papers from SEI's Kris Kringle line.  I attached them to one another in rows of 4, 3, 2, and finally 1 spool to resemble a tree type pattern.  Finally I covered a wood star with patterned paper and a few hand-cut, pop-dotted, patterned paper elements and attached this to the top spool.  The spool tree is an easy, fun home decor project that will look great amongst your holiday decorations!!!" We want to give them away to our craftiest friends, too! Thanks Julie!

On the 8th day of Christmas SEI gave you a free printable download to help spread the joy!

4 x 6 / 5 x 7 / 8 x 10

With three different sizes, we think you'll find many uses for this cheerful holiday greeting. Trying cutting the 4x6 into a card for starters!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you are having a wonderful day with family and friends. Remember to take plenty of pictures!

Audrey created some beautiful layouts with the Moonrise collection. We hope these pages will inspire your autumn and Thanksgiving scrapbook pages.

"For my first layout, 'She Loved Fall', I cut out the large orange flowers and brown leaves from the patterned paper and layered them behind my matted photo. There are two strips behind the photo, the green one which I cut from the paper and the white one which I used a border punch on. I stitched around the edge of my page with brown thread to frame it. Also, I used some distress ink on a piece of orange paper and glue the metal leaf over it and cut it out."

This photo is from her family heritage. We especially like the meaningful journaling.

This is another meaningful layout created by Audrey. We thought this would be the perfect day to share it with you.

"My 2nd layout, 'Gathering', I also fussy cut some flowers and added gold brads to the orange ones. I punched the striped paper with a border punch and pleated and stitched it to the page. I made a visual triangle with the green tab, the green leaf, and the green in the stripes strip."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Table-Setting

Is anyone still looking for a centerpiece or place-setting idea? This idea from KSL Studio 5 is a perfect way to use a Moonrise paperpad for a festive Thanksgiving table-setting. The video explains how they did it. For more instructions, templates, and a supply list go here.

Thanksgiving Place-Settings

Welcome Audrey! You may remember the fun halloween wall-hanging she shared with us last month. She also has a blog, Audrey's Reflection, which is full of great projects.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching. So, we thought you might need a place-setting idea. Here's what Audrey did...


"I made some place setting tags for Thanksgiving Dinner which we are hosting at our house this year! I used some tags of various shapes and sizes and ran them through an embossing folder that has a "burlap" pattern. I inked the tags and tied some jute twine on the ends. I used a leaf punch to punch an orange, green, and brown leaf, which I folded a bit to make the leaves more 3-D. I took a small square of patterned paper, distressed the edges, and stitched a small border. I then cut my name with a die and glued them on! I plan to hang each from a gourd or small pumpkin at each persons seat. I think I am going to do something with them after the day is over, too, but I'm not quite sure yet!"


We love how she combined different colors and textures to create this warm and inviting table-setting. Do you go all out for your Thanksgiving table-settings too? Here's the idea we came up with last year. Any more ideas to share?

Thankful Layout

Hi! It's me Kathy, your guest blogger for the week, back to share some more crafty projects using SEI's new Moonrise collection. Have you enjoyed the projects so far? And what do you think of the Moonrise line? Gorgeous isn't it? I have really enjoyed working with these beautiful patterned papers and accents and today I have another scrapbook page for you!


For this page I used a grid design that allowed me to incorporate almost every patterned paper in the Moonrise line! The colors and patterns really compliment each other, don't they?


See the stitched leaf design in the upper right hand circle? That was made by piercing holes around a sprig of leaves from the Enchantment paper. Oh how I love the look of stitching on my projects! Did you know that about me? I have stitching on all of my projects! ;)


The layered accents for this page were made using the Family card stock stickers. These stickers work well together and look great stacked on top of each other! I think they turned out beautifully! SEI has made it easy for me to create great looking pages and cards!

Thank you for popping in today. I hope this SEI Moonrise line and my page have sparked some creative ideas for you! Tomorrow I'll be back with more! :) Kathy

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Project of the Week

St. Patrick's Day is coming up fast! And we don't want you to get stuck in a pinch with no green on. So here is a little neighbor (and yourself) gift!

For this simple project I used Christmas Mint's Meringue and Wintermint and punched out of each paper two 2 inch wide circles. Then, I folded all four circles in half.


The next step is easiest to explain visually! I used glue dots to adhere the circle together and make each piece overlap one another, so in the end they lock together. It's like when you fold a cardboard box in on itself to close it.




Now that you have everything secured (don't glue down those pretty side openings!) I simply used a Moravia Designer Brad for some extra fancy. You could use a Christmas Mint brad too if you want to be all green! You could also add paper, fabric, or ribbon to the center for addition embellishing. Depending on how you want to use this, I would hot glue a pin to the back, or onto a hair clip if you wanted to make a mini one, or anything else you can imagine. These are great for your layouts, too!


Finally, for your neighbor gift, I printed this little ditty onto the back of Happy Day Candle (it's the perfect cream, seriously) and attached it to the back of Christmas Mint Wintermint. The Cream card is 3" x 4.5" and the green is 3.5" x 5".


Now, if you want to pinch someone, be sure to leave them out of your deliveries. ;) Happy St. Patrick's Day!

-Mandi

On the 1st Day...

On the first day of Christmas SEI gave to you one amazing wreath idea! Pia made this beautiful holiday wreath using WinterSong's starlight paper. First she cut 12" x 3" strips of paper. Then she folded them accordion style (like a paper fan). Last, she overlapped them a little, pinned them onto a styrofoam wreath, and voila!