Paisley Santa Card

Santa baby, hurry down the chimney tonight!

Today I'm sharing homemade stamped Christmas cards in unusual  color combinations. The first one is built around a beautiful paisley background paper, topped with a subtler, darker-toned print. And they both sport that special "bling" for the snowflakes!

Winter Wonderland Stars #1

We had a great party! Click here to browse:

Here are our first artists to be featured from the Winter Wonderland linky party.

Blythe and Jasmine take salt dough to a whole new level with this AMAZING garland! Who knew flour, salt and water could look so great? Go visit them at The Desperate Craftwives to get the full story. 

They'll inspire you to want to make your own ornaments, garlands, or tags for your packages. This is a great project to share with the kids, too.


     Sarah fashioned this beautiful wreath that can be used all winter long. Just from looking at this, you can almost smell the pine trees as you dream of gliding on the ice! You gotta go see closeups of the glittery ice effect she created on the skate over at Alderberry Hill.

Our next artist's approach will get your creative, out-of-the-box juices flowing. Meet Pattie from On Hollyhock Farm. She shares one of her favorite past projects: A Christmas Screen Door.

     I love how she used the corbels as steadying legs. The color, the lights, the way it frames the tree...such a festive front porch vignette! Complete with her porch watchdog.

     Go check out the gingerbread and details of this upcycle project. While you're there, you'll want to check out the ottoman Pattie created from a drawer, and her whimsical 'junk angel.'  

Pattie, Blythe, Jasmine, and Sarah: you are STARS at I Gotta Create!  Thank you for inspiring us this holiday season! Please feel free to grab this feature button on your way home.

<a href="http://igottacreate.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa425/igottacreate/imastar150.png"/></a>

Who will be next? Keep linking up the good stuff. The party is still going strong, with more beautiful features forthcoming!  I can hardly wait to show you :) Come browse the Winter Wonderland party right here.  For current party information, *look here.*

Star of Wonder Burlap Bags

Pin It

Rustic, simple, sweet, and festive in burlap, glitter, buttons and bows, these little gift bags could also double as ornaments for the holiday.

Thanksgiving Day Parade of Stars!

Columns left to right: My 1929 Charmer; Cottage & Broome; Reading Confetti; Choux-Choux; Crafted Niche; Chrissy's Crafts; Eclectically Vintage

    It's your front-row seat to the I Gotta Create! Thanksgiving Day Parade! Our "floats" are SPECTACULAR!  {Macy's got nothin on us} Let's get started! You can click on any text link to visit the artist for a full helping of their creativity:

Snarky Thanksgiving Apron

I don't know what comes over me. But sometimes these vintage ad women have things they gotta say. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday...and can be a little nutty with all the cookin' and cleanin.' So, if you find yourself getting a bit snarky, laugh about it!

I love this fabric! And of course, I always print my designs on washable computer printer paper. {resource here} That way I never have to worry about washing and ironing my creations...

Natural & Fancy Place Cards

Here's a more sophisticated use of nature's bounty to decorate the Thanksgiving table. 

Winter Wonderland: December Craft Craze #3

Feel free to browse. The most current party info is HERE!

Anyone hearing jingle bells?  

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or anything else during the month of December, bring a blizzard of your holiday crafts, decor, food, jewelry, and DIY projects right here!  

Link up to 8 of your favorite self-made creations--we want a sleigh full of all the best goodies!  Visit all month long for holiday inspiration. I'll be featuring throughout the month, so link up anytime before the big Christmas Parade on December 24th!

Button up on your posts or sidebars! Please help spread the word and the cheer!
<a href="http://igottacreate.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa425/igottacreate/IGottaCreateWinterWonderland100w.jpg"/></a>

Rules:  {1} Link to your post, and not just to your blog.  {2} Link back to I Gotta Create! in your post or on your blog and help promote the party.  {3} Visit others and spread joy by leaving them a comment.  Let's really support each other!  {4} I'd love it if you joined my blog as a follower or subscriber.

Now...Wander through this Winter Wonderland of Goodies:

Gobbler Gourds {Simple Napkin Rings Part 2}

Ahhh, Autumn. Fall yard work unexpectedly leads to creative inspiration. I can hardly wait to show you!! 


First: wanna take a short trip down the winding backroads of creativity and see how it all evolved?

C'mon! Climb in...we're going to a beautiful plant farm, home of this purty little rig.  

The plantings are gorgeous this fall.  

Here's some great junk. You can see much more on the Picking Out Fall Gourds tour *here.* I give you some tips on choosing gourds. 

For now, as you may know I fell in love with an assortment of gourds and brought them home... 


...and made simple ornaments...

...for a halloween project that didn't quite turn out. You can see the mayhem on facebook. For today's purpose, please note the green balls at the base of the tree. 

Those are hedge apples. They fall like rain {actually more like giant green hail} from the hedge trees in our yard. So when I ran into Babs, who bought and celebrated hedge apples on her blog, I was stunned! And I realized: sometimes when you have something in abundance, you take it for granted. 

So I thought: what else am I not really seeing and fully appreciating? These locust tree pods are everywhere in our yard. That's when inspiration struck. {Stay with me...the road is winding back around.} 

I wanted to use the locust pods and plant farm gourds to take things up a notch. You might have seen my post on napkin rings that do double duty as place cards. But they are actually now serving as a base for these Thanksgiving table decorations / place cards: 

Aren't they SWEET? She sports gold paint stripes, a head from a {fake} acorn, and feet of leaves.

Both get google eyes and wattles from a fall fake flower bush. His feet are flowers.

To make the tails, I poked holes into the gourds and stuck in the pods.

The turkeys from the plant farm do a double-take...

See more pics of these two on Facebook.

So. Much. Fun.  


Want to see something a little more refined for the adult Thanksgiving table? I thought so! *Click here* for Natural & Fancy Place Cards.

May you find inspiration in your fall chores! And thank you, Babs, for reminding me that abundance and opportunity are all around us. There's so much to be grateful for...

 Snarky Pilgrim Apron Here
Thanksgiving Napkins Here

Simple Napkin Rings - Place Cards Here

Funny Thanksgiving Card Here

Hilarious Silverware Turkey Here


Grab some virtual candy here

to bling up your blog or website!

I'm linking up to these superb parties: Monday:  Craftomaniac, Making The World Cuter, Marvelously Messy, Project Queen, The Girl Creative, Debbiedoo's Newbie Party, The Gunny Sack; Tuesday:  Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog; Wednesday:  Blue Cricket Design, Nest of Posies, Savvy Southern Style, The Trendy Treehouse, Very Merry Vintage Style; Thursday:  Katie's Nesting Spot, Shabby Nest, The CSI Project; Friday:  Finding Fabulous, My Simple Home Life, Romantic Home, Tatertots and Jello, Thirty Handmade Days, Whipperberry; Saturday:  Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors, French Country Cottage, I Can't Stop Crafting; Sunday: Nifty Thrifty Things, Under The Table and Dreaming; Thanksgiving 2011: Someday Crafts Seasonal: It's Fall Y'all!



Party with The Wildly Original Crowd!
link up Wednesdays at 7pm CST.

Simple Napkin Rings

Simple and organic materials of raffia and cardboard create pleasing napkin rings or place cards... AND in the coming days it will serve as the sturdy base of a splendid little project I will be unveiling.

This project couldn't be thriftier or easier. Just cut the cardboard tube from your paper towels, wrapping paper, or what-have-you, down to the width you want for the place cards / napkin rings. Put a little hot glue on the tube and wrap raffia around it. You could tie it off in a bow or knot as in this photo, or hot glue into place a little cardboard leaf that can pull double duty as a place card. Options are endless!

I cut my tubes wide enough to accommodate the leaf punch/embosser I used for the place cards. 

But what I'm really going to use these for started with a field trip my hubby and I took a couple of weeks ago.

I bought some pretty little gourds.

The next weekend, when we worked in the yard, I started looking at the 'fall debris' in a whole new way.

You may have seen some of the results of that in this post.

These are seed pods from the locust tree.  Deer love to eat these. Once we had a deer munching on some no more than 8 or 10 feet away from us as we sat on the back patio. What a treat! {for all of us} 

Tons of them land in our yard each fall. See? There are still plenty waiting to fall. 

And all the threads of this little story will fall into place here with Part 2 of this story!


Here's a MUST-see the December holiday version. Click HERE. 

{Hint..You have a secret ingredient in your kitchen right now to make the holiday version even more amazing}

A yummy Fall treat:

Peach Crisp baked in Mason Jars

Kiss the Cook!
3 free printables

{I host a linky party every Wednesday. More info *HERE.*  I'm sharing Simple Fall Napkin Rings with these fine folks, whose links open on ~ Sunday:  Sew Darned Crafty, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, Making Monday Marvelous, Brassy Apple, Craftomaniac, Alderberry Hill, Under the Table & Dreaming, Making the World Cuter ; Monday: Skip to my Lou, Cherished Bliss, The Rustic Pig, Sugar Bee Crafts ; Tuesday: Not Just a Housewife, Carolyn's Homework, Elizabeth & Co., The DIY Dreamer, Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday, Savvy Southern Style, What we Wore & Made, Uncommon, Gingersnap Crafts, The NY Melrose Family, Today's Creative Blog ; Wednesday: I Gotta Create! ,  All Star Block Party, The 36th Avenue, Live-Laugh-Rowe, Handy Man Crafty Woman, The Trendy Treehouse ; Thursday: Scissors & Spatulas, My Repurposed Life, Frugal Girls, Shabby Nest,  Romantic Home, French County Cottage, Stuff & Nonsense ; Friday: Funky Junk Interiors, Happy Hour, Anything Goes, Finding Fabulous, My Simple Home Life, Tatertots & Jello, Thirty Handmade Days, One Creative Mommy ; Saturday: Be Different Act Normal, A Bouquet of Talent, Tutus & Tea Parties, Six Sisters Stuff, Sew Country Chick, DIY Showoff, Positively Splendid , Nifty Thrifty Things; Seasonal: Better Late Than Never}

Join The Wildly Original Crowd 
linky party Wednesdays at 7pm CST!