Gift Giving Challenge: Desktop Calendar by Monique

Hi everyone! It's Monique here and I'm so happy to start off the "Christmas Gift Giving" week here at Doodlebug. For my "Gift" I chose to create this happy & colorful Doodlebug desk calendar for 2017! Because what can be more fun than sitting behind your desk at your office (while you'd much rather be at home crafting!) and look up from your work and see this colorful piece standing on top of your desk?!

The calendar consists of six double-sided cards which all fit into one sheer cd case and when the cd case is folded open it doubles as a standard for the calendar! Super simple! 

Here's a photo of the first six months and where January stands in the open cd case.

And here's a photo of the other months, only December is hidden behind November:

And this is the closed cd case with all the months inside. I used the Flea Market collection and the Teensy Type alphabet stickers.

Let me tell you quickly what I did: I cut 6 pieces of white cardstock (12x14 cm). Then I cut the months of the year from one of the 6"x 6" Petite Prints paper pad using my Silhouette Cameo and these two cut files from Lori Whitlock: #36959 and #36960 and I printed this free printable calendar and chose the one with 6 months on one page. 

I adhered the colored months on the white cardstock pieces and then the printed calendars on top. I took care not to adhere the month cards too low on the cardstock, because that part of the card would have to fit in the narrow cd sleeve, together with five other cards!  

Next I gathered my leftover stickers from random collections (can even be much older collections):

And now the fun could begin: embellishing the twelve months! Again, I took care to not over-embellish as I wanted the six cards to fit into the cd sleeve! 

Here's a photo of the front of the cards: January - June 2017

And a photo of the back of the cards: July - December 2017

I only needed a few stickers to make the cards fun! 

This was so much fun to make and also so very easy and inexpensive (which is rather nice in such an expensive month as December!) that I think I'll make another one, but then for myself to take into the office (this one is for my sis). 

Here are four of the months up close. If you want to see all of them then please hop over to my blog!  

Thank you so much for stopping by our blog today and letting me share my "Christmas Gift Giving" project with you. If you have any questions just let me know and I'll get back to you! 

Wishing you a crafty day! 

Monique

Happy Thanksiving + Fall Decor Lanters by Monique Liedtke

Hello Doodlebug friends! It's Monique on the blog today and I'm so happy I get to share my Thanksgiving project with you.

I love spending time with my family and especially when it comes to having breakfast or dinner together. I love decorating the table for times like these, so I decided to create a little something for our Thanksgiving dinner. I chose a lantern cut file from the Silhouette shop and Doodlebug's Flea Market collection and got started. I cut three lanterns from my Petite Prints papers in three different colors and decorated these with die-cuts, (mini) doodle-pops, stickers and also one of Doodlebug's new cut files: the little fox. 

I love Doodlebug's new cut files and just needed to make this little fox with the fox cut file (you can find a Studio file in the Silhouette store here and the SVG file in Lori Whitlock's store here): 

Isn't he adorable?! I just love that the new cut files give me the opportunity to decide how large I want this fox! What I would also like to try is to create one in totally different colors, like maybe a blue or a green fox ... just for fun. 

And here are the lanterns one by one. I adhered some vellum behind the windows in two of the lanterns and left the other lantern "open". I love the brighter light of the (fake) candle in the open lantern, but I also love the soft glow caused by the vellum. 

The Doodle-Pops, like this night owl, are just perfect for projects like these as they offer just that bit of extra dimension.

Here the little black country crow is a mini Doodle-Pop, the mouse is a sticker from the sheet of Icons Stickers and the other elements are die-cuts from the Odds & Ends package: 

I really love how these turned out and can't wait to use them on my table! 

Here's just one more photo:

Thank you so much for stopping by our blog today and taking a peek at my project. Wishing you a wonderful day! 

Monique

Petite Prints Challenge: Merry Family Layout by Monique

Hello Doodlebug fans! It's Monique on the blog today and I'm so excited to share this rainbow colored Petite Prints layout with you! I adore the new Gingham-Linen look of this collection and I think it's my new favorite Petite Prints collection ever! I also love all the colors in this "rainbow" collection and wanted to use ALL of them, so I did! Except for the "Petite Prints" collection I also used some "Here Comes Santa Claus" embellishments to complete my layout.

Here's what I created:

This layout came together so fast! For the centre of my layout I cut two red and one white circles using the Coluzzle circle cutter. Next I grabbed the 6"x 6" Gingham-Linen Petite Prints paper pad and a hand punch (yes, no digital cut files at all this time!) and punched 21 Christmas trees, one from (almost) every page:

I arranged all the trees around the centre circles and decorated them with both shiny and matted Sprinkles and added my photo and the rest of the embellishments. Never before did I finish a layout so quickly! A few die-cuts, stickers and a paper clip from the Here Comes Santa Claus collection, some machine stitching and I was done!

Thank you so much for stopping by our blog today! I cant't wait to see what you'll create with Doodlebug's Petite Prints collection! Wishing you a great day!

Monique

Here Comes Santa Claus: Christmas Magic Layout by Monique

Hi everyone! It's Monique on the blog today sharing a "Here Comes Santa Claus" layout with you. Although it was sunny and warm outside (25 degrees Celsius, very warm for us!) I really enjoyed scrapping some Christmas photos. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I can't wait for it to be December again!

Here's what I created for today's blog post: 

I started this layout with the large background Christmas tree, which I cut from the "Holiday Hearts" paper and matted it with the "Cupcake Gingham-Linen Petite Prints" paper. Next I matted my two photos and arranged them on the tree. All the embellishments came next. My layout turned out a little busy as I'm never able to stop adding more and more die-cuts, stickers. sprinkles, etc. 

The Odds & Ends package is full of cute Santa's! Here's one of them: Santa in a plane .. isn't he fun?! And don't you adore the "Red Robin Mini Doodle-Pops" and that fun paper clip?! I sure do!

I decorated all the hearts in the tree with shiny Sprinkles from the "Holly Berries" Shape Sprinkles and the "Candy Cane" Shape Sprinkles. 

For another layout I needed only the top of one of the Santa stickers and so I had the legs left ... Don't you think it looks like he's hiding behind the tree?

I just love the shiny Candy Cane Shape Sprinkles in this collection so much! 

And one last close-up. I added some machine stitching for the finishing touch. 

Thank you so much for stopping by our blog today. I can't wait to see what you'll create with this awesome Christmas collection!

Have a fabulous day!

Monique

Holiday Traditions: Monique's December Skating Tradition

Hi Doodlebug fans! I can't begin to tell you how much fun and satisfaction I get from scrapping with Doodlebug's happy and colorful collections! Every time I sit down with my photos and my Doodlebug collection of choice I 'm filled with this feeling of happiness!

The same happened when I scrapped this layout with photos of my kids taken a few years ago. Every year in December an ice skating-rink is installed in the city centre and my kids love to go ice skating there.

I really love how well the colors of Doodlebug's collection "Home for the Holidays" match the colors in my photos! And don't you just love this bow that comes with this collection?! Perfect for gift wrapping but also for layouts.

The "'T is the Season" flag is actually a pixie flag, but I cut off the holes and used it without the pixie.

The title was created using the sketch pen in my Silhouette Cameo. 

And I just adore the 3D stickers belonging to this collection, like Santa here: 

This is it. Thanks for letting me share, hope you liked it! Thank you for visiting Doodlebug's blog today!

Hugs,
Monique

Tuesday Tutorial: Gift Bag with a Bookmark

Hi Doodlebug fans, it's Monique today. For everyone who wants to give his or her co-worker, neighbor, friend or ... whoever, a handmade, yet simple and quick Christmas gift, here's a fun idea for a gift bag with a bookmark! And for those of you who waited till the last minute to start making gifts: it's done in a jiffy!

Here's how you can make these: start with two plain, kraft, store bought gift bags and Doodlebug's "Home for the Holidays" collection: 

Cut two strips of doublesided paper approx. 7" x 2.5" and fold the top at 1/3. 

Adhere "flags" from the pixies on top (glue the back of two flags together, so you get an image on both sides): 

And embellish: 

Last but not least adhere two small strips of magnetic tape on the inside, so the bookmark will stay in place in your book and the bookmark is done: 

For the bag: adhere a piece of patterned paper on the front of the kraft gift bag, some ribbon and a bow and clip the bookmark around the front: 

And you're done!

And that's it!

Hope you like the idea. Thanks for visiting Doodlebug's blog today and hope to see you back tomorrow! 

Monique

Inspired by Pinterest: Monique's Thankful Layout

I think this was one of my favorite Doodlebug assignments to date: "Search through the Doodlebug Pinterest pages for ideas. Create something that is inspired by a PIN you found on the DB boards."

This was so much fun! There were so many fabulous Doodlebug projects to look at. I took me forever to even start looking for one to use for this assignment. I just kept looking at all the fantastic projects. 

In the end I decided to narrow down my search to projects of only one person. I chose a design team member who has a completely different scrap style than I have: Sherri Cartwright. I have always loved the backgrounds of her layouts and wished I could do that too (but was afraid to try). 

So that's what I did and this is the end result: An "I am thankful for family and friends" layout with a mixed media background.

and some close-ups:

The background was created using a TCW template (chicken wire it's called) and lots of gesso. When the paper was dry again, I sprayed on three different mists and used a tissue to whipe off the excess. As I had some problems getting my paper "straight" again I trimmed half an inch of all sides of my cardstock and machine stitched it to a patterned paper. This way my layout is not so "wavy" any more. 

And now you probably want to know which PIN I was inspired by? Here it is:

Except for the painted background, I also incorporated the twine and the little bits and pieces that are "randomly" spread over the page in my layout. I really like how this turned out and will definitely try this technique again. Hope you like it too! 

If you ever feel like using one of the Doodlebug projects for one of yours don't forget to show us, for example on Doodlebug's facebook page! We would love to see it! 

Thanks for visiting Doodlebug's blog! Happy scrapping!

Monique