Deck the Halls with Paper Wizard!

Hey, there! I’m thrilled to be joining you today as a guest blogger on the new Paper Wizard blog! Paper Wizard and I go way back…back when I was a young college student and PW was just beginning to cast its magical spell on the scrapbooking industry. Now many moons later, I spend my days as an editor for Paper Crafts magazine. From cards to tags to home décor pieces, I’m constantly amazed what people can do with paper, adhesive and a little imagination.

Today, I’d like to share some projects made with Paper Wizard’s Christmas-themed kits. While these intricate laser die cuts are perfect for scrapbooking your memories, they’re also great as embellishments on cards, gift bags, and so much more!

Let’s begin with the Santa with Cookie (H-SANTA-B) kit. This jolly fellow comes complete with a fur-trimmed suit and a chocolate chip cookie! Since Santa deserves to be the star of this card, I matted him with a striped patterned paper and added the perfect sentiment:

Next I had some merry fun with the Christmas Stockings in Crimson (H-STK-C) and Forest (H-STK-G). I decided to make personalized gift tags for my sister Laurie and cousin Carter. All I did was spell out their names with cream alpha stickers and add some gold twine to the stocking loop. Super easy! They also make great tree ornaments!

For my last project, I was inspired by the Silver Snowflake Minis (SE-SNFLK-M). This kit comes with five mini snowflakes made out of sparkling glitter paper! I decided to use one snowflake as an embellishment on this wintery treat bag. Using the navy cardstock strip from the packaging (waste not, want not!), I adhered a small panel to the front of the bag. Then I affixed the snowflake and added a pearl to the center for some extra sparkle. Finishing touches include a white sentiment sticker (shows up great on the dark cardstock!) and a pretty gray and white ribbon:

Well, there's three festive projects that are so easy to make! What can you do with paper, adhesive and a little imagination? Given this magical season, the possibilities are endless!

Happy Holidays!
P. Kelly Smith

Finally Fall

It is fall. The skies are starting to fill with soft, cottony clouds and the leaves are beginning to turn. As I look around me, I remember something my mother taught me, years ago. While I was away at college, my mother would call me up from our home in Fullerton, California and ask me to look out my window. With a sigh and a backward glance at my stack of homework, I would obediently walk over to the window in my tiny dorm room on BYU's campus and look outside. "What color are the trees?" My mother would ask, expectantly. I would shrug noncommittally, as though she could see my shoulders hunch up and then down again, and say, "I dunno, Mom - kinda green?" and we would then talk about other items of interest until we said good-bye. This scene would repeat itself again the next week, and then the next, until one week in early October. She asked her usual question, "What color are the trees?" and I begrudgingly walked over to the window to find out. But this time, I was silent. Then a long breath escaped me as I sighed into the phone... "ohhhh, Mom!" The leaves had turned. They had changed, seemingly overnight into a glorious riot of color. Ambers, oranges, caramels and crimsons danced in the wind before my eyes. I stood quietly as I took it all in, from the tops of the Wasatch Mountains to the tree just outside my dorm window. "That," my mother stated, listening to my silence on the line, "is why I love Utah."

It is the first week in October in Utah, once again. The sky is overcast, but the leaves are beautiful. Earlier this year, I lost my mother to cancer. On April 30, 2011, she left us and my life will never be the same. But I will always have with me the things she taught me. She showed me how, despite my driven nature, to slow down and appreciate the gifts of nature God has given to us to beautify our lives. Autumn in Utah is one of those precious gifts. I doubt that I would have this appreciation had I not had the mother god gave me. Thank you, Mom - for this and for so much more. You opened my eyes to things I doubt I would ever have seen on my own.

As we all rush around checking off the boxes on our collective to-do lists, may we stop for a moment and take a look around. Breathe it all in. Count your blessings; even naming them one by one. We have all been given gifts in our lives. May we always know them, may we always be grateful for them, may we pass them on to the people we love.