Step by Step

1. Go to your local tree lot and ask nicely for LOTS of boughs!!
2. Choose a container, fill it will WET floral foam and then soak it completely with water.
3. Choose 2 tall pieces for the center of your arrangement and stick them in back to back, secure them together with a piece of floral wire.
4. Start by placing sprigs into the foam face up all around the bottom (so they are sitting on the container), then start filling in the middle of your arrangement with sprigs (make sure your sprigs gradually get shorter, leaving the center sprigs the tallest) . We usually use 3 different types of evergreen trees to show variety and different colors of green.
5. Finish off by adding fillers like cranberries, pinecones, bows, bells, birds, feathers etc.

Here are 3 of the 4 that I made this year... (two for friends, one for Riley's teacher and one for our home)

Hope you enjoy making your Christmas centerpiece as I did making all of mine!
dream.design.create.

nkki

K2 December LO challenge

My challenge this month is to use 5 patterned papers, a punch (can be a shape or border), and the technique this month is to stamp!
This month my inspiration came from the stamps you see on this LO. I wanted to create a "pre" LO all ready for a Christmas family photo. Can't wait to see what you come up with!!!
dream.design.create.
nikki

Brody is 3!!

Dora wishing Brody a Happy Birthday!

Donuts for breakfast...

Brody's "Jeep"!

Make a wish...

Today was so much fun...Brody was so excited for his third birthday. He received a interactive Dora book as well as a motorized jeep. He had so much fun playing with both his special gifts.
xoxo
nikki

Christmas centerpiece

We have an artificial Christmas tree, but I LOVE the smell of fresh evergreen. So, each year my Mom, Lori and I make our centerpieces together. I am always amazed at how beautiful they turn out. The pheasant feathers, pinecones and sprigs of other evergreen trees just put the finishing touches on it. This is not the greatest picture...and doesn't even show it justice, but in case I don't get a better one, I just wanted to be able to look back and see a picture of it.
dream.design.create.
nikki

Typewriter Key Wall Art

This is the "project" my Mom, Lori and I made over Thanksgiving. We saw the idea from Pottery Barn here. I would love for you to leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I hung it up in my hallway that leads out to my garage...but I think it need a better place in my home. It was work...but so much fun!!
dream.design.type.
nikki

**edited** i had quite a few requests on how we made this, so you will find instructions on how to create it here :)

BINGO!!

Our (me, my mom and SIL Lori) next project is to paint a wooden board with this image on it. I was inspired by a piece of wall art you can purchase at Pottery Barn. I just created the image above in photoshop...and will use this as my "pattern" for painting the real one on a wooden board.
dream.design.create.
nikki

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had such a great family day...eating, crafting and having so much fun. I will post more picts of our "craft" later on...it is amazing
xoxo
nikki

LO Bootcamp

All right ladies...here are the 20 LO's for the "bootcamp" kit I created for you. They are posted in the order I created them in. I will be bringing them with me tomorrow night to the crop at K2.
The few items you will need to bring (besides your kit) is two or three alphabets (i used a pink paislee glitter alpha and making memories small alpha), a few misc ribbons/rick rack, a piece of felt, a few misc size tags, glimmer mist, various stamps (I will bring most of mine for you to use too!) Cant wait to see you!
dream.design.create.
nikki

time capsule...

In browsing through my picassa albums...I found these blog headers. It was fun to see what I had created over the past couple of years!
xoxo
nikki

Challenge 64

This weeks challenge over at Creative Pandemonium is to use striped paper and a photo(s) that are at least 4 years old. This was such a fun challenge for me...I got to dig through all my old pictures and I found one of my wedding day (which was over 9 years ago). It was so much fun scrapping this picture and to remember all the fun we had that day! Thanks for the great challenge Janelle.
dream.design.create.
nikki

November's K2 Layout Challenge

For those of you Sarasota locals...K2 is going to be hosting weekly blog challenges every Monday. I am responsible for the first Monday of the month...which will be a LO challenge. The second Monday, Kim will be doing a photography challenge, the third Monday Jamie will be issuing a card challenge and the forth Monday of the month Jessica will be issuing a new product/technique challenge! We hope you play along...and I know we are going to do something special for the person who completes the most challenges!!

November's challenge is to use: two patterned papers, two tags and one photo! Above is my LO, lets see yours!
xoxo
dream.design.create.
nikki

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday we had no school so went and bought some pumpkins, patterns and all the tools needed to carve. Riley chose the the spider and Brody chose the ghost and tree. We sat around the kitchen table cutting the tops off first, then cleaning the insides out...the boys thought that was lots of fun to reach into the pumpkin and dig out all the seeds and mush. Then you had to follow the pattern by poking hundreds of tiny holes into the pumpkin...then cut it out. Riley poked all the holes himself while I poked Brody's then I cut them out. They turned out great. We put a candle in them as soon as we got home and had them lit all day.
We are looking forward to getting dressed up tonight to go trick or treating... have a safe and happy Halloween.
xo
nikki