Holiday Card & Project Ideas from All Around the Web

In case you haven't checked a calendar in a while, it's November! Yes, NOVEMBER! And that means it's time to get going on all those holiday projects you promised yourself you'd work on this year. We'd love to see what you're working on! If you need some time away from the family to actually get any of your projects done, we totally understand. That's why we're having a crop every Monday night in November, 5pm to 10pm, $5 crop fee (waived with a purchase of $25 or more). Call the store now to sign up (503) 259-9130. We still have our Friday night crops from 6pm to 11pm, but recently they've been filling up fast, so we've added a Monday crop to our schedule. We also still have table time for $1 per hour during the days while the store is open, call to save your space. And for those of you who need more than just a few hours to work on your projects, call to sign up for our All Day crop, November 28th, 10am to 10pm, $10 crop fee (waived with a purchase of $50 or more). Call now to sign up!

And once you're signed up for a crop and know you'll have some time to get some work done, check out these sites for some great holiday inspiration, cards, projects and fun gift ideas.

As we mentioned in the newsletter, there's a great article featuring simple holiday cards & instructions in the November issue of Scrapbook Ellaments online magazine. Sign up & have the magazine sent to your inbox every month, stuffed full of fun ideas.

Sign up for Jessica Sprague's FREE online class Holidays In Hand, where Jessica will help us create a December album full of all the memories from this December. Click HERE to go to Jessica's website, on the opening page, scroll down for the info. on the class.

Another beautiful December album is featured on designer, Ali Edwards's blog right now. Ali creates a December Daily album every year. She shows us how she prepared her book for this year, creating a special page for each day, where she'll add some journaling and a photo for each day in December.

(Personally, I've checked out Ali's album and signed up for Jessica's class. I'm excited to try this for December. If I can get my album done in November, I think I'll be able to fill it in a bit each day. I think I'll combine some of each designer's ideas and come up with my own book. If everyone likes this idea, I can teach a class on it next Fall...let me know!)

If holiday party invitations are on your to-do list, check out check out the holiday invitations on the Make Your Own Invitations blog. They love to have people submit great invitations they've created for inclusion in the blog, I'm submitting some of mine soon.

Here are 25 Holiday Quotes from Creating Keepsakes to download & print and use on your holiday cards, layouts & other projects.

On Creating Keepsakes's blog, I found a cute envelope for that DVD of photos you've been meaning to send to the relatives. Put it in the envelope and send it as their Christmas gift!

I was going to include individual links on to this one, but the home page of Paper Crafts magazine's webpage has so many cool ideas, I thought I'd just link to it & let you choose what you like best. They have 12 online bonus projects for cards & gift ideas, along with a great idea for using recycled Christmas cards you received last year as your cards for this year...such a cool green idea!

Of course, search through the web for holiday ideas just wouldn't be complete without a visit to the craft diva herself, Martha Stewart. Now, I was one of those who used to follow Martha, but kind of got out of the habit when I started to find all these other sources for craft ideas. But lately, I've found myself coming back to Martha for her sense of style and ideas that seem easier to me now than her old ideas did way back then. So check out Martha's Christmas Ideas page for all sorts of fun Christmas ideas. If you give a lot of gift cards, give them a little of your personality this year and check out these great gift card holders.

And just to "toot my own horn" a bit, if you're looking for a nice project to create for your home or to give to a special friend, check out my H-O-M-E project article which is featured in Scrapbooking.com Magazine this month, complete with photos & instructions. I was very excited to be asked to write this article and have my project featured this month. As always, remember to check out my blog JulieChats, to see my latest Layout of the Week or browse through my "Get Your Creative On" section of blogs from all over the web.

You can sign up to have updates to this blog and/or my blog emailed to your account.

Meet Carol Nelson, Our Newest Card Class Instructor

We are excited introduce our newest card class instructor, Carol Nelson. Carol's first class at Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio will be Monday, September 28th from 6:30pm to 7:00pm, $7.00 fee. Call the store to sign up for Carol's class 503.590.8806. She will help us create the two Halloween cards shown here.

Carol wants to introduce herself to all of us, so read on & meet Carol with us....

I have lived in Hillsboro for 5 years now, having retired from Customer Service in the electronics industry in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Now I finally have the time to do the things I love, making cards and other paper projects, sewing and gardening.

I always try to make cards that are simple and can be used for many occasions with little or no modification. I use every little scrap that I can to get the most out of one piece of paper. And I love embellishments!

I sell my cards at a couple of local stores and participate in the Red Sled Bazaar in Sherwood every Christmas. I have also taught at the Peddler's Pack in Beaverton.

I hope you will join me for this class. All you need is a ruler, a pair of scissors and your enthusiasm!

I am always open to suggestions, so if you see something you would like to see me make, please let me know.

Hope to see you at one of my classes soon!

SMOOCH Inks "How to Video"

Check out this video for a demonstration using SMOOCH inks to create a card. Fast forward the video, to about the 6 minute mark, to see a beautiful scrapbook layout & 2 finished cards. We've got lot's of colors of SMOOCH inks & glitters in stock, in the store now!

Little Yellow Bicycle...Ideas from CHA

If the summer heat has got you down, crank up that AC & check out this awesome slideshow. All these photos were from CHA last Spring. This group is from Little Yellow Bicycle. We've got most of these collections in the store now, if the inspiration bug really bites you! I can't wait to work with some of this cute Baby Boy Safari paper!

So, grab that ice tea, sit back & relax! Let the Whimzee's Girls give you that new inspiration you need!

Check back here next week for more great inspiration for your layouts, cards & paper crafting projects!

Pink Paislee @ CHA

I love all the Pink Paislee layouts from CHA! Check out the slideshow with Twila's photos and let it inspire you to create some of the gorgeous layouts designed by Pink Paislee's talented designers!



If you have any problems viewing the Pink Paislee slideshow, click here, for a link the the slideshow on photoshop.com.

Quick Holiday Thank You Cards

I know I mentioned this idea in my last newsletter, so I thought I'd show you how the Holiday Thank You cards turned out. When I first saw Luxe's new Color Me Festive Paper, I just knew my daughter, Delaney, would love it. I thought it would be perfect for her to use to make Thank You cards. Our cards were pretty simple, but you could use this same idea with a few more sophisticated supplies to create your own beautiful holiday cards.



Delaney loves to color, so this paper is perfect for her! She chose to use her colored pencils to color a few of the cute sketched designs. Then I cut them out for her and she used the Tombo adhesive to put them on the front of her cards.


For the cards, I pulled some, Hot Off the Press cards out of my stash and let Delaney choose which design to use for each recipient. I added a little ribbon to each card and Delaney used the inside to write her Christmas Thank You's. Delaney loved being able to make her own cards, so this project was perfect. It would be a great one to do with your kids too!

Just a little note from Whimzee's: Be sure to read your newsletter next week for all the Warehouse Sale and Weekend Crop details! We're planning a lot of fun events for 2009 and we'll be asking for everyone's opinions on all sorts of things. So feel free to comment here on the blog if there is something you're interested in learning about or chatting with us about! Hope you all had a very Happy New Year! We're excited for 2009, see you at the store!