Merry Christmas!

Can you believe Christmas is almost here? I'm busy with last minute shopping and wrapping.  I make every effort to make the packages just as special as the gift inside.  It's always so much fun to receive a beautifully wrapped present! PSA Essentials gift tag stamps make it cute and easy to make your own gift tags and add an extra special touch to your gift giving. See what our design team has come up with using the Gift Tag Stamps! 

Make sure to color the stamps up to bring them to life! Head on over to Cyber Savvy Shop to check out all of our gift tag stamps. Merry Christmas from everyone at PSA Essentials! 

New Years Eve Party Ideas

November came and went now I can hardly believe that we are into double digits in December. I had lofty aspirations of getting my act together and hosting a cookie decorating party for my kids but it's time to face that idea is just not going to happen. So I am moving on to planning a New Years Eve celebration!

A few years ago, my clever husband came up with the idea to watch the ball drop on YouTube from the previous year. This way you can see the ball drop at any time that's convenient for you, and you don't have to stay up until midnight.  Does it matter if it says 2014 or 2015? That all confuses me anyway.  When decorating and crafting, which number do I use?  Saying farewell to 2014 or ringing in 2015?

This year we are having our friends The Bradfords over (like most holidays!) and I've rounded up some cute decor on Pinterest to try.  Here's what I am inspired by!

Love the Bubbly Bar! Pom-pom straws & DIY Confetti Champagne Bottles 

Full Tutorial on Champagne Bottles Here

Photo Booth Props

Pop! Fizz! Clink! Signage

What could be better than Gold Dipped Balloons?

Confetti. There must be confetti!  That's what vacuums are for. 

Free Printable at Lauren Nelson

Invitations by Minted (Envelope liner a must!) 

Of course, my invitation and envelope will also have my PSA Essentials personalized address stamp for easy return addressing and I am sure to find a way to use my Peel & Stick stamps in my decor....What do you do for New Years Eve? Share your New Years Eve decorating ideas with us here or on our Facebook page. 

DIY Monogram Door Wreath

If you loved Mae Armstrong's DIY fabric pinwheel ornaments last week, you will love this variation on the project. Need a festive, personal front door wreath for the season? Try this one by Mae! It involves quite a bit of work (fair warning) but the result is fabulous and the tutorial is really detailed so you will get a great finished product. Best of all, you can reuse this each season.

For this project, Mae used her PSA Essentials Treeo Peel & Stick stamps. This is really a versatile stamp set!

Mae started by using the biggest embroidery hoop she could find at Michael's.  (Don't forget your Michael's coupon!) 

 Trim the size of the base fabric. For this wreath Mae selected natural burlap as her main canvas.  



Insert the burlap and attach the outer hoop. Tighten the screw and secure. Gently stretch the burlap making sure it's nice and flat. Set aside.

 

Mae also wanted a black initial and she found that felt was the best option. Using her Silhouette SD, she selected a decorative font and trimmed the letter. She used freezer paper and ironed it using a low setting onto the felt to serve as her pattern.  She then cut the felt and glue the letter onto the center of the stretched burlap.

 

Mae chose to decorate her wreath with stamped wooden discs mounted on a fabric pinwheel. She used the PSA Essentials peel and stick TreeO stamp set.

Using her Big Shot, Mae selected a circle die to help her with her fabric pinwheel production. It was a truly a great way of cutting all the fabrics she needed.  You'll need five circles to complete one pinwheel.  (And she made a lot of pinwheels!) 

To assemble the pinwheel start by folding the circle in half.

Then fold into a cone shape making sure the edges meet. Secure with glue and begin with the rest of the of the remaining pre-cut fabric.

Mae made a whopping 14 pinwheels for this wreath as she wanted cover the entire hoop. That means this project required 70 circles to complete the wreath.  Since she knew she was going to re-use it again she didn't mind the time of putting it together.  (This woman is amazing!)

Arrange the folded pieces to make a circle. Glue the stamped wooden disc.

Line the edge of the hoop with the fabric pinwheels and spread them out. Secure each pinwheel with glue.

And voila!  Didn't it turn out beautifully!?

Fabric Pinwheel Ornament

An cue the holiday projects! I'm bringing readers dozens of seasonal, DIY, crafty goodness over the next couple weeks.  This idea comes to us from our design team member, Mae Armstrong.  Mae used her Gigi Monogram Peel & Stick stamps by PSA Essentials and holiday fabric to create beautiful monogram ornaments.  These make great gifts for teachers, neighbors, Secret Santa gifts or are just fun, DIY additions to your own tree. 

Want to learn how she did it? It's fairly simple. First she stamped the "A" onto wooden discs to be the center of the ornaments using her PSA Stamper & Gigi Monograms.

Using her Big Shot machine, Mae selected a circle die to help her with the fabric pinwheel production. It was a truly a great way of cutting all the fabrics she needed.  You'll need five circles to complete one pinwheel.

To assemble the pinwheel start by folding the circle in half.  

Then fold into a cone shape making sure the edges meet. Secure with glue and begin with the rest of the of the remaining pre-cut fabric. Mae suggests cutting all the circles in one batch and the rest of the process gets really easy.

Arrange the folded pieces to make a circle. Glue the stamped wooden disc.

 Attach a stretchy gold string and that's it! 

Try making different sets for friends, family, teacher gifts or a fun gift tag for the Christmas! 

Thankful

Thanksgiving is truly my favorite holiday. As I have said before, it's the only holiday that I feel isn't focused on candy and presents, but truly being thankful for all that we have. And in my family, I feel so incredibly lucky and so incredibly thankful. My favorite tradition on Thanksgiving is when each person goes around the dinner table and says what they are thankful for. The responses are always surprising and interesting. What are your Thanksgiving traditions? What are you thankful for?

I am always a sucker for a good quote and a free printable. Today I am celebrating Thanksgiving with great verses, quotes and more about being thankful.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Via The Pleated Poppy

Stay at Home Artist

Available on Etsy 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

DIY Christmas Tree Garland

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Heidi at Honeybear Lane created this really cute stamped garland using PSA Essentials Peel & Stick stamps. 

Creating this garland is easy. Heidi choose Whimsy Tree Peel & Stick stamps and stamped using her PSA Essentials stamper loaded with hunter green ink onto white cardstock. She used her 1.5" circle punch to cut out and adhered to red and green cardstock punched with a 2" tool.  Then she sewed them together. 

I love how it turned out! She sewed right through the middle, too... 

She also created this "NOEL" sign to decorate her mantel. This one uses Archive Peel & Stick stamps by PSA Essentials. 

How are you adding a festive touch to your holiday decor this season? I love these ladies that are doing it themselves. Share your projects with us on our Facebook page! 

DIY Stamped Gift Card Holder

Do you give a lot of gift cards over the holidays? Consider elevating your gift card gift with a special envelope or holder like Jennifer Holmes did.  She created a gift card holder that makes that gift card extra special! She used UBU Peppermint Swing Peel & Stick stamps by PSA Essentials to create this project. Check it out!

I love how she colored the stamp up and really brought it to life! 

This stamp set is really adorable, one of my favorites for the holidays! 

Shop Peppermint Swing now!

Holiday Cards

It seems that people everywhere are skipping over Thanksgiving completely and headed straight into Christmas. Target is fully decorated, our neighborhood has Christmas decorations out and I know of dozens of people who have already started shopping for this holiday. Which camp are you in?

If you happen to be one of those fans of 2 months of Christmas (check out the hashtag #twomonthsofchristmas, apparently there are a lot of people who are fans!) then this post is for you. Today I am sharing some of our favorite Christmas cards made by our PSA Essentials design team. I guess if you are going to hand-make your Christmas cards, you really do have to be prepared!

Here are three of my favorites from Jennifer Holmes. Some great inspiration here, especially when it comes to choosing your color combos. Not everything has to be red and green!

Here are a few of my favorites from Carly Robertson. The "holiday letter" stamp is one of our most popular stamps sold in our Treeo Peel & Stick stamp sets. 

Regina Magnum made some really cute ones for us, too! 

Which one is your favorite? Plenty more card and holiday card inspiration to come here on the blog!