Love Lives Here for the Holidays

Welcome to today's Papertrey Group Post. This month we're sharing creations for the upcoming holiday season. It seems a little early to be discussing the holidays in September but we all know that the earlier we make a game plan, the better off we are when it comes to crunch time.

I'm starting off today with a few projects created with Melissa's and Nichole's new Love Lives Here: Holidays stamp set and coordinating mitten dies. I love that I now have a holiday rendition of the Love Lives Here stamp set. The images and sentiments are so homespun and meaningful.
For my card I created a cozy little scene complete with a star studded pine garland + hanging winter mittens. There are lots and lots of little images in this set to create holiday scenes. You'll definitely get your money's worth with this stamp set. For the mittens, I used some October Afternoon patterned paper that was die cut with the mitten die. It also has the cute little scalloped edge on the same die. The hearts were stamped and trimmed with scissors. Sparkly, red foliage from the craft store + a gold jingle bell + red baker's twine finish off the card. And you may notice the fun application of the sentiment...stay tuned this week for more on that. ;)
Next up I got a head start on some neighborly gifts that I deliver each year. You may have read yesterday's post on my summer canning. You can see that I'm all ready to fancy up some jelly jars.
This year I'm going to create some pretty little toppers using Love Lives Here: Holiday. It's so perfect for my little country creations. I started with a big metal rimmed tag that was covered with patterned paper. I then layered on a die cut and stamped mitten...so cute in Kraft and Fresh Snow. I chose the *homespun* sentiment because it's perfect for homemade creations like my jelly jars. Some more sparkly sprigs, bells and baker's twine finish off the layered tag.
To top my jars, I'm using brown paper sacks this year because the paper is easily wrinkled and becomes very pliable. I simply cut a round out of sack using a tin lid as a circle template. Wad the circle up and spray with water if you want even more wrinkling. I centered the circle on top of the jar and tied with cotton twine. My embellished tag is tied onto the topper using baker's twine.
And now I'm well on my way to having some wonderful samples to use for holiday cards and gifts.
Please join me as I hop around to the other Design Team Members' blogs today to see what they've created with Love Lives Here: Holiday:

• Nichole Heady
• Heather Nichols
• Dawn McVey
• Lisa Johnson
• Betsy Veldman
• Melissa Phillips
• Maile Belles
• Jessica Witty
• Erin Lincoln
• Danielle Flanders