Home for the Holidays: Whimsical Wednesday Challenge!

Happy Wednesday, my sweet friends! Thank you for your loving support over the weekend... my family and I appreciate it. You are all amazing. :o) Hugs!

This week's Whimsical Wednesday challenge is Home for the Holidays! Create any winter, Christmas, or New Years themed home decor item to play along with us this week. With the big celebration this weekend, there's still some time to make that perfect accent or centerpiece with your own crafty hands. :o) Or as is the case with mine, one with a couple of Christmassy elements, but meant to stay put beyond that glorious day.

Made for my sweet, amazing mom... snowy flowers that will never wither. :o) (And a cute stocking tag, too!)
"Warm Winter Wishes"

This turned out to be a favorite project of mine! I happened upon a paper flower arrangement during a google search a couple weeks ago and instantly fell in love. I needed to make my own version and decided on a wintry wonderland bouquet with a couple pops of gorgeous festive red. All of the paper is Core Couture, so it is indeed sparkling like winter's beauty.

I sketched out some ideas, flipped through my little Cricut cart booklets to select a few different flowers... and five million pop-dotted layers later, my snowy bouquet was complete:

The Christmas ornament (and tag) hanging by a pearly snowflake contains the beautiful Whimsical Designs sentiment, which is from the Snow Much Fun set. I embossed it in silver to match the icy silver flecks in the flowers and also embossed some snowflakes from an Inkadinkado Christmas set. I love that I always have the ideal sentiment on hand with these magnificent stamp sets! :o) They make me happy, just like these enormous flowers. Oh these flowers... I practically cleared out my stash of pop dots. They range in sizes for a more realistic appearance. The smallest is 11 layers and the largest is 19 layers, with each layer being 1/4-inch smaller than the previous. To complete the arrangement I added a few different leaves, a couple of my favorite Cindy Loo flourishes, and added some pearls that my mom adores. (And of course a smattering of snowflakes.) The flower stems are made with rolled up white paper. Straws would have been much easier, but mine are all striped or neon... which just didn't quite coordinate. ;)

One side of the Cindy Loo basket contains another ornament, given to me by my sweet friend Jayne. I'm unsure what cart it is from, but I absolutely love it and think it's perfect for this project.

I backed the opening with a swirled golden paper, then covered it in Star Dust to make it sparkle with the Lord's light. Both of the ornaments are topped with silver Stickles and hung in silver. (And a winter butterfly wanted to be a part of this gift.) I made the basket from Cindy Loo and filled it with river rocks to prevent a tumbling accident. I admit it was a bit time consuming assembling the flowers with so many layers, but it was well worth it. Plus, this project was completely enjoyable and fun. I'll be giving it to my mom on Christmas Eve, along with a massive hug.

Since this project isn't exactly wrapping-friendly, I made a coordinating tag. I used the same papers, plus some sparkly Snow-Tex, microbeads, and ribbon. Why so snowy? Because this stocking has been dancing in the snow! :o) (Although technically the rain and fog came, so they are photographed separately. So unfortunate!)

If you view it larger, you'll see the pretty microbeads on the two bottom white sections. I wanted the stocking 'snowy' in a few different forms, so I used the microbeads on the bottom (lightly pressed into Glossy Accents), embossed the top section with a snowflake folder, and added some Glistening Snow-Tex along the trim. My mom loves ribbon and buttons (don't we all?), so I finished it off with some Prairie Bird Boutique crinkle ribbon, a shiny button from a goodie box I won from my sweet friend Pam, and a Peppermint Stick Trendy Twine bow. :o)

I hope you'll join us this week by linking up your winter, Christmas, or New Years home decor project to the Whimsical Wednesday challenge post! I am excited to see your creations. :o) Our very own Whimsical Designer Nanne is this week's generous sponsor, donating a prize pack of marvelous Webster Pages scrapping supplies. Thank you, Nanne! :o)

Be sure to flutter on over to the rest of the Whimsical Designers' blogs to see their beautiful creations. Thank you for visiting me today! I hope everyone has a sparkly, joyous, whimsical Christmas. :o)

Challenges entered:
 * Die Cuttin Divas~ Holiday Decor
 * Fantabulous Cricut~ Trimming with a Tag
 * My Craft Spot~ Tag... You're It!
 * My Sheri Crafts~ Let it Snow

Key Recipe Components:
 * Cricut cartridges: Cindy Loo, Create a Critter, Florals Embellished, Wall Decor and More
 * Cuttlebug embossing folder: Snowy one from Winter Wonderland set
 * Stamps: Sentiment~ Whimsical Designs~ Snow Much Fun; Snowflakes~ Inkadinkado
 * Paper: Core'dinations, K and Company
 * Ribbon: Prairie Bird Boutique
 * Twine: Trendy Twine (Peppermint Stick, purchased at My Craft Spot)
 * Microbeads: Recollections
 * Punches: Butterfly~ Martha Stewart Small Monarch; Snowflake~ Marvy
 * Miscellaneous: Glossy Accents, Pearls (Recollections), Snow-Tex, Stickles