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Saturday, December 11, 2010

Cutters Creek Red & Green Blog Hop

Welcome to the Cutters Creek Red and Green Blog Hop! Our wonderful design team members have all created some fun Christmas projects to inspire you! The only requirement for the projects were that they must contain Red and Green. You just saw Chris' fabulous project on the Cutters Creek Design Team Blog . Your next stop along the hop will be Laura's Blog . If you are just finding our hop please head over to the Cutters Creek Design Team Blog to start from the beginning. There are 8 inspiring projects for you to check out as well as 8 chances to win a great prize from Cutters Creek! Here is the project that I have created for today's hop:


I have been seeing a LOT of banners lately. They are definitely a fun trend! I've been wanting to make one of my own so I thought I'd give it a try. When I first saw the Country Life Cricut Cartridge I wasn't sure it was one I really "needed". Truthfully I'm not much of a country girl. But then I saw the banner font! For my project I used the Scalloped Banner base cut at 10 1/2". Then I chose a plain blank banner for the patterned paper. You can actually cut this layer with the letters in it but I wanted a little fancier font. My patterned paper is the Merry Christmas line from Echo Park Paper. For the letters JOY on my banner I used the Ashlyn's Alphabet Cricut Cartridge and cut my letters at 4" tall with the Block feature on from Ruby Slipper Bazzill Cardstock. Next I embossed each letter with my Cuttlebug folders. I used Argyle for the J, Swiss Dot on the O, and D'Vine Swirl on the Y. Before I began gluing I laid out everything on my Bazzill Splat Mat and grabbed my Tim Holtz Ink Applicator and some Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress Ink to distress everything. I started just off the edge of my papers and swirled along the edge for that nice aged look. On the letters I lightly swirled the whole letter to highlight the embossing.


Next I had to decide what little extras I wanted to add to my banner pieces. I knew I wanted to try one of Tim Holtz's tissue tape flowers that I saw on one of his 12 Tags of Christmas blog posts. I inked the tissue tape with more Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress Ink buy unrolling about a foot of the tape and sticking it to my Bazzill Splat Mat. I inked it and then rerolled it onto the roll to make it easier to create the flower. I adhered it around a 1 1/2" circle that I punched from scrap paper then backed it with a pretty scalloped circle that I cut from Sentimentals at 3" and distressed. I created the center brad with my i-top tool and a medium brad daddy. Next I cut the cute little cardinal from the Winter Woodland Cricut cartridge at 2" and adhered him below the J.


To make the snowy tree branch, I again used the Winter Woodland Cricut cartridge and cut the branch at 2". I swirled the edges with my Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress Ink again and used a little extra on the pine cone to make it stand out a bit more. I highlighted the details on the pine cone a bit more by using a brown pen to highlight the U-shapes in it. After I adhered it to the banner with Quickie Glue Roller Pen I added some White Liquid Applique. Now, the bottle says to let it dry overnight but I'm just not that patient and I LOVE the bumpy, snowy texture that it gets when you heat it wet. After it dried I then added some Diamond Stickles for an even snowier look.


I used the Christmas Cheer Cricut cartridge, which is an oldie but still one of my favorites, to cut the stocking at 3". I again used the White Liquid Applique to make the toe, heel and cuff of the stocking textured. Then I tied it on to the bottom of my Y with a bit of white embroidery floss. I added another strip of the Tissue Tape to the top of my banner piece after I distressed it. To adhere all of my pieces I used my Tombow Mono Adhesive Runner and my Quickie Glue Roller Pen. After it was assembled I decided I needed a bit more bling so I outlined all of my letters with the Diamond Stickles. I added some silver eyelets to the banner holes to make them a bit stronger with my Crop-A-Dile. Then I used some red velvety ribbon from my stash to string my banner together. I tied all the little bows separately and used the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to add them to the ribbon.

Now for the good stuff: BLOG CANDY! I get to giveaway the Cuttlebug 5X7Christmas Countdown Embossing Folder to one lucky commenter!


Please leave me a comment and let me know about a favorite gift you've given, for Christmas or any time. Comments left up until 11:59pm on Sunday December 12th will be eligible to win. All winners will be selected Monday and posted on each blog so make sure you check back to see if you have won! You will have 48 hours to respond before we choose another winner.

Here is a list of all the blogs in the hop in case you get lost along the way:
Cutters Creek Design Team Blog
Mandie's Blog (you are here)
Laura's Blog
Melissa's Blog
Sandi's Blog
Kim's Blog
Vicki's Blog
Lori's Blog

87 comments:

  1. Mandie,
    What a JOYful banner! I love it.
    A favorite gift I've given... does a Cuttlebug for myself count? lol
    I think that my favorite gift was a true red car for my DH, which we all enjoy (we enjoy both - the car and my DH) :-)
    Hugs,
    Dorly Weitzen, Israel

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  2. Hey Mandy, love the banner and am soooooo inspired to make one. My favorite gift to give is a box of ROSETTES, they are a light, crispy,crunchy sort of sweet treat that my mom used to make and now that she is gone I have taken up the tradition and my family really looks foreward to them. Have a great day Donna, Minot ND

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  3. Great banner, mandie! Nice job.
    gail

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  4. Beautiful banner Mandie! I love those patterned papers! The favorite gift I have given was to my DH and that was a real size leg lamp from the Christmas story movie, and yes it is in the middle of our front room window!

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  5. Love you banner! My fave gift to give is peppermint bark. It's easy to make, looks Christmas-y, and leads itself to all kinds of cricut-made packaging :)

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  6. Nice banner and thank you so much for the detailed instructions.
    Favourite gift??? I have given many but my favourite gift is for the whole family when we get together to have Christmas dinner.

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  7. I'm loving banners and this is perfect.

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  8. Your banner is very nice. My favorite gift I have given is a scrapbook I did for my daughter after she left her husband. He had destroyed all of her childhood pictures. Well thank heavens I had kept most of them..or at least duplicates of most. So two years after she left him she got her album. She just broke down and cried when she saw it. It was the BEST present I have ever given. I hated it that I made her cry but she told me Mom I thought all of these pictures were gone.

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  9. The favorite gift I gave was to my daughter...I got her the cricut personal and the cuttlebug for Christmas....I can't wait to see her expression when she opens them!

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  10. I love your banner Mandie. It's wonderful. Very festive.

    I don't know what the favorite gift I have given is. I am really enjoying getting scrapping goodies for my son's girlfriend. It's quite fun having someone to scrap with.

    Sue S.
    ssedlak815@gmail.com

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  11. My favorite gift was to my daughter. Ever make something, that you think came out perfect and you hated to give it up? I made a wonderful wooden three panel picture frame of my daughter and her first grandchild at the pumpkin patch, all deco and dementional and will be treasured for years to come. Love your banner.

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  12. Beautiful, and so festive! Great Job
    Huggles
    Sandy
    sandypumphrey@comcast.net

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  13. Wow...I love it...it's beautiful!

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  14. Mandie, I love your banner, I'm going to have to get some of Tim's Tissue Tape. I think the best Christmas gift I ever gave someone was for our son. We have 4 generations with the same name, DH's father, DH, DS and DGS, I matted and framed photos of each of them taken at about the same age, journaled the names and birthdates. Our son was so touched that his eyes filled with tears.
    Bonnie J

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  15. Your banner is awesome and I totally have ideas for lifting this project. Great job.

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  16. Cute Cute Cute!!! I'm thinking of doing a banner or two for my holiday decorating, and this was a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing!

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  17. Very cute banner. My fav present was given to my brothers & sister last year, framed pics done with my father on his 81st b'day. TFS

    Missy
    kalittadog@yahoo.com

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  18. The favorite gift I have given is the Christmas I was able to give my husband the shotgun he wanted. He is an avid hunter and he had lost his shotgun when our house burned down the previous January. I managed to keep it a secret from him and it was the first time I actually surprised him with a gift-a gift he had not guessed before Christmas! I loved the look on his face when he opened it!

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  19. Love the banner, I was thinking of making one for the holidays. You have given me the inspiration to do so.

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  20. Gorgeous banner!!

    My favorite gift I've given would probably be the watch I gave my husband for our wedding that was engraved.

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  21. Great work, Mandie! You're hard work shows...just beautiful!!

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  22. Adorable banner! I love it.
    My fav gift was for a foster child. A little girl my daughter had. I gave her a hybrid album with photos of her with the family, and dressed it all up with ribbons and such.
    Lynn
    Kraftycat

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  23. Mandie, your banner is so cute. I love all the details you added to each one. I didn't know Country Life had a banner font on it. I may have to take a second look at that. The best gift I have given, probably the recipe book I made my mom last year. She lost everything in a house fire so last year I made her a recipe book that contained a lot of her old recipes that I had gotten from her. I know she will likely never use the book but she has her recipes back.

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  24. Love the banner. And I don't think I've seen the TH tissue tape flower yet - and I have some tape!! woo-hoo gonna have to try

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  25. I love this banner what a nice idea
    Thanks
    Lynn

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  26. Mandie--this is absolutely stunning! I love it

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  27. Love the banner, it gave me a great idea for a baby shower I am hosting.... my favorite gift I ever gave was a scrapbook I re-di for my mom, that my granny had originally done (it was in one of those horribly peel & stick photo albums)

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  28. Great banner. My favorite gift is the handmade bowl my son made.

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  29. Mandie, your banner is the best one I have seen this holiday season.

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  30. My favorite gift given will be this year's gift to my boys of an xbox 360 as they've been asking to get theirs fixed and it was only a little more to buy them a new/better one. I hope they're surprised :)

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  31. I love your banner! You have a busy weekend with both blog hops, huh? I'm looking forward to the rest of the hop!

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  32. Love the banner! It turned out so cute and so pretty, too!

    I think my favorite gift I've ever given was a car play mat I made for my nephew. I used fabric and iron-on applique and made roads and buildings and even a 3-D tunnel you could really drive the cars through! It was double sided so you could change the scene you were playing on. When my nephew was too old for it, they saved it and a few years later my sister asked if we'd like it back for our kids! So now my son is playing with it, too. :-)

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  33. AWESOME, MANDIE!! Thanks for sharing! Have a GREAT Day,
    Me-Ma Kim

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  34. Like the idea of the large banner...you could almost use it like a curtain topper.

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  35. Wonderful Idea - thanks for the inspiration and instructions
    --Robin

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  36. Mandie, what a wonderful banner! So bright, cheery and a delight to look at. From your explanation of how you made it sounds like a lot of work went into it -- and it shows! My favorite gift -- my granddaughter loves carousels - we were visiting great grandma in Buffalo, NY and the Herschel Carousel Factory and Museum is there and we took her for a ride on one of the original carousels and then I bought her a small musical carousel. She plays it over and over and over. I think we'd still be riding it if we were there!

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  37. Beautiful banner. Last Christmas I gave one of my friends framed art that she absolutely loved. I was so happy knowing how much she loved it.

    spunkycrayon at yahoo dot com

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  38. Great banner! My favorite gift is a scrapbook calendar that I made one year!
    ra6352 (at) gmail (dot) com

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  39. My favorite gift I have given was my time. Time for others such as family, friends, and strangers.

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  40. The most memorable and favorite gift I had given was a Christmas Tree to a family (I didn't know) with some presents to put under it for their children. To make a long story short, they lost everything they had to a fire and if that wasn't bad enough, robbed on top of it. So we all pulled together and I went shopping and they ended up having a great Christmas after all. If you could have seen the look in their (the parent's) eyes and tear of releif and joy when we walked in with tree and presents, nothing comes close.
    (I love your banner. It is one of the prettiest I have seen.)

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  41. Beautiful banner. Thanks for sharing. My favorite gift I have given would have to be home-made cookies and candies to my family and friends!

    Mandy
    mjbaker at earthlink dot net

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  42. Love the look of the banners. Great job.

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  43. love the banner! My favorite gift that I have given is when my Aunt and Uncle lived far away, mom and I would bake our favorite cookies and send them a goodie box each year.

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  44. love the banner, it's great.
    Ann W
    weedmana@embarqmail.com

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  45. I love the pennants. My favorite gift I've given is three years ago I spent about two months collecting and repairing really old family photos in Photoshop. I combined them with information from my dad's ancestry research and made a digital scrapbook that I had printed and bound as book for my sister. I made CDs of the album for other relatives. It was a labor of love.

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  46. Wonderful!! I wanted to make a banner but thought it would be so much trouble. Your instructions are so great, I need to go and make one for myself:) Great work!!

    Cindy

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  47. Love the banner... the paper you chose to use for it is perfect.

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  48. Beautiful banner! I love the paper! Thank you for sharing your how to.
    My favourite gift I've given is a watch with large numbers. My daughter has low vision and can read this one.
    sucor_2 at hotmail.com

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  49. Best gift I have given? Would have to be the memento book I gave my best friend years ago. We have known one another since we were 2 years old. I copied memories of the 2 of us from the time we were little through 30 yr of friendship (photos, letters - one written in kindergarten-, etc)and placed them all in a book. This was long before I took up my scrapbooking hobby. Best gift I have given because it meant the most to both of us.

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  50. awesome banner!
    a favorite gift i gave was to my mom, a mini album of why i love my mother.

    Theresa Neubaum

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  51. Very pretty i love your banner. My fav gift has to be my ugly orange purse my hubby got me. in my eyes the uglyer the prettyer im in love with it.

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  52. Your banner is wonderful!, it looks like material, just beautiful. TFS
    jennyplace26@gmail.com

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  53. Great banner!!!Love the paper and the idea ;) Thank you for sharing!

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  54. Very nice banner. You did a wonderful job. Favorite gift I gave was a scrapbook to my daughter. She still considers it her best gift ever.
    sandyford77 at sbcglobal dot net

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  55. Lovely banner, thanks for the inspirations. Favorite gift is the paperbag album for my sister.

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  56. How lovely this is and That font is great.
    I love the way you combined elements to reflect the season.

    You didn't say if the gift had to be a Christmas one.
    But for my Grandson's 18th birthday I made him a Scrap photo album from containing work from his actual birth day to the present AND HE loved it.
    Said he would keep it forever, now coming from a teenager in front of all his family that was special to me.
    Now I can scrap one for my Granddaughter for her's in March next year and having my Cricut E will make it a lot easier.:-)

    Thanks for the chance to win something

    ScattyShirley
    NOT sure if I should post my email address on a public Forum.
    how else do I do it.?

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  57. Love the banner. I have been intimidated to try one, but with your inspiration may broaden my horizons.

    Favorite gift given will probably be the laptop we are giving my Mom this year for Christmas. She loves her time on the computer, but her old one was as slow as possible. We think she is going to love her new "toy".

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  58. My favorite christmas present would be: the kisses that I get from my animals waking up on christmas morning :D

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  59. I like the banner need that cart.

    Best gift I gave was a craft room for my daughter and I to spend time making memories.

    Susan
    lavenderangel@centurytel.net

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  60. Awesome Banner!!!!!! It looks great! The first thing I thought of when I saw the question about favorite gift I have given is the one I am giving my son and hubby for Christmas. Tickets to see Disturbed and Korn. They have no idea they are getting them so I am so excited!

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  61. I LOVE your banner. I love all the detail you put on it too. Great job.

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  62. Great project. Thanks for all the details of exactly what you used and where to find it. Gammah TJ

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  63. I love that banner. Has me tempted to get the country cartridge now.
    Favorite gift I ever gave...probably the year I made framed 8x10 layouts for the members of my church volunteer team

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  64. I love this banner and I am very tempted to try and do one for myself. Just love your little detail on each piece.

    I think one of my favorite gifts I've given was when I got my boyfriend his PS2. I hid it until after all the presents had been opened and he wanted it badly and was hoping for it but then it wasn't in any of the boxes. The suprise and smile on his face when I got it out of the closet for him was priceless :D

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  65. That is such a pretty and festive banner. Fantastic job.

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  66. Love your banner Mandy!
    My favorite gift I have given has bo be the altered boxes I made for each of my grandkids last year. I took the paper boxes the sell at Michaels and decopauged them and added their names and other embellishments. They loved them!

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  67. Love your banner. I think I might need to check out Ashlyn's Alphabet again. I really like the font you used. My favorite gift to give had to be there year my family "adopted" the family of one of my students. They had suffered a house fire just before Christmas and lost everything. We showed up at the hotel they were staying in on Christmas morning with breakfast and presents for the kids. Mom said it was the best Christmas ever. misha_113@yahoo.com

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  68. I haven't tried the banners yet but they sure are cute! Hmm my favorite gift I ever gave anyone..well my Parents were married by the JP and Mom always wanted a "real" wedding so on their 35th anniversary I gave them a wedding with all the trimmings from a Gown to a Pro Photographer, my 4 siblings and I along with my 3 children were the wedding party and it was wonderful. My Parents have now been married 52 yrs and they still talk about that being their favorite anniversary.

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  69. I can't really think of a gift, but last year I was able to spend time with my dad at Christmas when he was sick in the hospital. Its not always easy to find the time with two kids but I was glad I was there at that time.
    As far as my kids, I just love living the holidays through their eyes. fun times!

    nygator95 at gmail dot com

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  70. I love the banner. I think it would be great for Birthday's also. I think my favorite gifts to give are quilts that I have made and hand quilted.
    Thanks,
    Judy

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  71. Mandie ~ you made my day because you are my 400th follower!!!! I just had to come over and see your blog (now a follower) and I LOVE your banner!!!

    Gonna hop now!!

    www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com

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  72. I am such a dork, forgot to mention my favorite gift.....I took my niece out for the day for her 8th birthday. We went to lunch (she chose Arby's) then we got pedicures and then went to paint pottery. On the way home we stopped for a piece of cake. It was so fun for both of us ~ spending time together!!!

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  73. Love your banner. Thanks for sharing how you made it.

    Deanna A.

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  74. Love this banner and all the embossing Mandie! Thanks for sharing and the chance to win!
    ~Suzy suzyq28024@gmail.com

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  75. My most favorite gift has been the engagement ring my (now) hubby gave me in the bottom of my stocking one year! We've been married for almost 19 years now and it's still one of the best gifts ever!

    Love the banner! TFS!

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  76. Great banner!! Not sure what my favorite gift has been, I would say getting my big cricut last year is high on that list, because I had the small one since it came out and I love the bigger one.

    Thanks for playing along with us at FCCB this week.

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  77. I'm a new follower come and visit me
    http://buzzybeedesigns.blogspot.com
    Rebecca Minor
    buzzybeedesigns(AT)yahoo(DOT)com

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  78. Love this!

    Thank you so much for stopping by the Echo Park Paper blog and leaving me such a nice comment of encouragement on my tag! It is really appreciated!

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  79. Love the banner! Thanks for sharing it with us at FCCB!

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  80. Beautiful little details. Thanks for joining us at FCCB!

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  81. love the bannner! Thanks for joining us at FCCB :)

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  82. love this, that little stocking on the y is a great touch!

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  83. Very nice project, thanks for sharing with us at FCCB

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  84. beautiful banner!! thanks for joining us at the FCCB blog hop :)

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Thank you so much for taking a minute to leave me a comment! I read each and every one of them and if you have a blog, I'll hop over and check it out in return!