Holiday Gifts with Cricut

 This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cricut for Cricut. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you're looking to gift or receive a Cricut machine this holiday season, look no further than the Cricut Joy. This little machine is a powerhouse of creativity and you'll love all the amazing projects you can make with it.

CRICUT JOY

You can't go wrong with the Cricut Joy. The Cricut Joy is simple, compact and inexpensive. The small size is perfect for anyone that doesn't have the space for a larger machine, perhaps they live in a dorm or a small apartment. This is the perfect machine for them! Kids will also have a blast creating with the Cricut Joy. Our 9 year old has loved whipping up adorable birthday and thank you cards to have on hand for friends and family. The Cricut Joy is the perfect gift for that budding crafter because it's so user friendly and fun to use. You can't go wrong with this itty bitty but mighty machine!

The Cricut Joy  comes with lots of fun accessories and materials to play  with. One of my absolute favorite features with any Cricut machine is that it writes! I LOVE this feature because when I need to address cards for the holidays, I simply type in the address and choose which font I want and voila! I have a beautifully addressed card ready to go. The Cricut Joy has an array of glitter, fine point, gel and infusible ink pens to write with. 

 If you are gifting a Cricut Joy to a friend or asking for one for yourself,  Cricut Joy Insert Cards are a must! There's a huge selection of colors to choose from so you'll be able to create cards for every season and occasion. Be sure to grab a few extra  Cricut Joy Card Mats because I guarantee you'll be making cards like crazy and you'll want to have some extras on hand!

Check out what we've been working on this holiday season using my Cricut Joy.  

Creating cards is a snap with the Cricut Joy and you'll love all the adorable holiday designs in Cricut Access. We've also been busing making tags ( that look handwritten!)  Christmas decor and fun paper ornaments using our Cricut Joy. 

Bundle together the Cricut Joy,  Cricut Joy Insert Cards, Cricut Joy Card Mats and a set of Cricut Pens to create the perfect gift set for that lucky recipient ( or for yourself!). 

If you're on the fence about which Cricut machine to get or give this holiday season, the Cricut Joy is the way to go. Check out these key features to see if the Cricut Joy is right for you!

Features

• Weighing in at only 3.9 lbs (1.75 kg), this smart little cutting and writing machine makes it easy to personalize almost anything
• Cuts 50+ materials, including iron-on, cardstock, vinyl, paper, and Smart Materials™ – super-easy, super-long cuts without a cutting mat
• Draws any shape and writes in a variety of styles
• Cuts individual shapes up to 4 ft long or makes repeated cuts up to 20 ft long*
• Fits in a cubby, packs away easily, sets up instantly
• Perfect companion to full-size Cricut smart cutting machines
• Bluetooth® wireless technology
• Design Space® software for iOS, Android™, Windows®, and Mac®

You will love the Cricut Joy and any crafter would absolutely love receiving one! Have a wonderful holiday season and thank you for stopping by!

Cricut Holiday Gift Giving Idea

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cricut for Cricut. All opinions are 100% mine.

For the past six years, I’ve been a part of a sweet Christmas tradition. Twenty-four friends put together twenty-four gifts for Christmas and now each of us have a complete advent calendar! I love the creativity and love each friend puts into her gift. Each gift is handmade so it makes it all the more special. 

This year I thought it would be fun to make each friend a whimiscal holiday village created with paper. 

The gift would contain 3 mini houses and 3 battery operated candles to illuminate inside the houses. The mini village is grouped together with the candles and wrapped up in cellophane and topped off with a tag and bow.

I can't wait to hand these cuties out to the advent group. I know they're going to love them! 

I'll show you how easy it is to create these darling paper houses for yourself. Let's get started!

Supplies used:

Cricut Maker

Cricut Access

Whimiscal Village SVG

Merry and Bright Tag

Deluxe Paper, Hostess with the Mostess® Gingerbread Spice

Red Cardstock

Teal-Green Cardstock

White Cardstock

Ribbon or Baker's Twine

Open up Cricut Access using the Whimsical Village and Tag SVG. Adjust the houses to the size you'd like. I also used snow trim from another image so all you need to do is adjust the snow trim to fit the houses. 

Click on "Heavy Cardstock" and hit continue. 

Cut out the houses using different colors and patterns of paper. I love the Deluxe Paper, Hostess with the Mostess® Gingerbread Spice papers mixed with solid colors of  cardstock. 

Once you have cut out all your houses, pop in a Black Cricut Pen  and open up the Merry and Bright SVG. Place a sheet of White Cardstock on the StandardGrip Machine Mat. Follow the prompts in design space to write and cut out the tags. 

Now that all of the tags and mini houses are cut out, it's time to assemble everything! 

Fold along the score lines and glue the pieces together. This is quick and easy so grab your kids to lend a hand! 

Attach the snow trim to the tops of each house using glue. Allow the houses and snow trim to dry completely. 

Now your houses are all ready to be packaged up! Let's just take a moment to see how adorable they all turned out. 

Punch a hole into each tag and thread baker's twine through the tags.

Group 3 houses and 3 battery operated candles together and place inside a cellophane bag. Add a little pink paper shred if you'd like! 

Wrap it all up  and attach the tag to the cellophane bag and tie with a big red and white ribbon. 

Your sweet gift is all ready to give! Everyone loves handmade gifts and this festive, whimiscal village will last year after year. It will remind the recipient of the love and creativity you put into the gift as they set it out each year.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Advent Calendar Ideas

 Disclosure: As a member of the Oriental Trading Fun Squad, I received compensation and/or products in exchange for my styling and crafting services. This post contains affiliate links.

Advent calendars are the perfect way to count down the days until Christmas. They make a wonderful family tradition that your kids will remember forever.  Check out all 15 ideas on the Oriental Trading FUN365 site!

Christmas Activities for Kids

Disclosure: As a member of the Oriental Trading Fun Squad, I received compensation and/or products in exchange for my styling and crafting services. This post contains affiliate links.

 Create new Christmas traditions and memories with these fun games and activities specifically for kids! Your little ones will love spending the holiday season playing, creating and imagining with these festive Santa approved activities. Head over to the Oriental Trading FUN365 site to check out all 15 ideas! 

Thanksgiving Activities for Kids

Disclosure: As a member of the Oriental Trading Fun Squad, I received compensation and/or products in exchange for my styling and crafting services. This post contains affiliate links.

 These 12 Thanksgiving activities will keep the little ones happily occupied while the finishing touches are being added to the Thanksgiving dinner. From creating a silly turkey to writing in grateful journals,there is an activity for kids of all ages to love! Head over to Oriental Trading's FUN365 site to check out all 12 ideas! 

Persona Vitamins with Moms Meet

I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com) to use and post my honest opinions. Compensation for this post was provided and this page may contain affiliate links.

What is Persona? 

Persona is a vitamin subscription that provides a 28-day supply of vitamins and supplements that are recommended for your unique needs. Members get access to expert nutritionists and an app with tools to help support their new regimen. Persona currently offers 80 different vitamins and supplements including vegan options. These custom vitamins packs are are based on your individual lifestyle and nutritional needs. 

With so many choices when it comes to vitamins, it becomes difficult to know what's best for you. It can be overwhelming to the point where you just don't take any vitamins at all. I was thrilled to try Persona because it takes all the guesswork out for you. With Persona, you receive a personalized plan specific to your individual needs. There is no"one size fits all" with Persona because they know needs differ greatly from person to person. 

Getting Started

On the Persona site, you will be guided to take a quick yet comprehensive questionnaire that is used to address your personal needs. The information from your quiz is given to a team of professionals who recommend your personal pack of daily vitamins. After I completed the assessment, I had a complete list of supplements that were tailor-made for my needs. 

Iron, energy support, Omega 3, and a hair skin and nail supplement were just a few of the vitamins that were suggested for me. I love that the research was done for me and that I can trust what I'm putting into my body.

I am nearing the end of my first month with Persona  and I can honestly say I that I have more energy during the day and better sleep at night. The packaging makes it so easy to keep track of your supplements. There's not a ton of bottles you have to sort through daily and they're labeled for morning and evening so you know exactly when you need to take them. I love the easy access  support from Persona and you can even schedule a call from one of their nutritionists to help with anything you need.

I love how effortless it is to order and how convenient the packing is. 

 

    Right now you can get 30% off your first two months using this link from Persona Vitamins.  With the busy holiday season coming up, take some time for yourself and your health and invest in Persona. Your body will be grateful you did!

Squishmallow Party with Jazwares

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Jazwares. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you have a Squishmallow obsessed child ( or if YOU are!) then this wonderfully squishy, squeezable, cuddly birthday party is just for you! 

The invitation to the party sets the tone for the event so the little guests knew there would be lots of pink and lots of soft, squishy Squishmallows! 

I created the backdrop by attaching pink, brown and ivory ballons together to create a garland. A glittery gold pennant banner was draped across the balloon garland to give it a little sparkle and shine.  

We fell in love with Flip-A-Mallows, the two-in-one Squishmallows and used them as part of the party decor. Wait until the end of the post to see what Hans the hedgehog and Dawn the fawn flip into! 

Goodies bags were filled to the brim with the cutest Squishmallow pens, stickers and treats for all the little Squishmallow fans. I created a few festive party hats out of paper for the little guests and Squishmallows to wear during the party. A party isn't complete without a party hat! 

Cake is a must at any party and Hans the hedgehog is certainly eyeing all those yummy sprinkles! 

I added a few simple paper hearts to glass milk bottles to dress them up a bit. The little ones loved dining on scrumptious cake and sipping ice cold milk. I think one tiny guest even offered a bite to Dawn the fawn! 

Towards the end of the party, we surprised the guests by flipping Hans the hedgehog into Sharie the sloth and flipping Dawn the fawn into Winston the owl. How adorable are they?! The kids LOVED playing and snuggling with these fun two-in-one cuties. 

The party wrapped up after lots of Squishmallow play and games. The little Squishmallow fans enjoyed every second with their new, loveable, super soft Squishmallows bffs!

A huge thank you to Jazwares for sponsoring this post! Check out Jazwares on Instagram @jazwares and @squishmallows on IG too! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Halloween Cone Gift Idea

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of HERSHEY® for SheSpeaks. All opinions are 100% mine.

Do you "boo" your neighbors? This is such a fun tradition that our family looks forward to each year and we can't wait to do it again! 

 Simply leave a basket of Halloween goodies on your neighbor's doorstep, ring the doorbell and RUUUUUN! Inside the baskets are treats and little Halloween gifts like HERSHEY® candy from Walmart, glow sticks, cards and stickers. Get the entire neighborhood in on the fun with this You've Been Booed gift basket idea! For this idea, instead of using a basket, I've created a cone to hang on neighbor's door knobs. They're so quick and easy to make, you could easily create them for the entire neighborhood in no time! 

I headed to Walmart  to gather everything I needed to put inside the Halloween cones. Walmart is the one-stop shop for all things Halloween and I knew I'd find some fun items to fill my baskets with. The HERSHEY'S All Time Greats Miniatures large variety bag was perfect for this project since we'll be leaving a lot of gifts on neighbor's doors and I wouldn't want to run out of goodies! 

To create the cone, print out this template and trace your choice of pattern paper around the template. Once your pattern paper has been traced, cut it out and glue it into a cone shape. Grab the download to the cone HERE.

 

Using a hole punch, punch a hole on each side of the cone and thread black ribbon through to create a handle. Tie a few strands of orange and aqua ribbon to the handles and decorate however you'd like! You could add stickers or cut out fun Halloween sayings from paper, just anything that gets you in that Halloween mood. 

Next, fill your cones with a little bit of paper shred and a Halloween card. Tuck in some Halloween stickers, glow sticks and lots of delicious candies from the HERSHEY'S large variey bag. 

Your Halloween cones are now ready to be hung around the neighborhood! Your neighbors will love these cute cones filled to the brim with all those Halloween necessities like HERSHEY® candies! 

It's always nice to let neighbors know how much we love and appreciate them. A little Halloween token of treats and small gifts is the perfect way to celebrate and bring the community together.

Be sure to stock up on HERSHEY Halloween products so you can enjoy them all season long!