HAPPY DECEMBER 4TH!!

December 4th (today), December 11th (next Saturday) and December 18th (the last Saturday before Christmas)... what the heck, that seems way too soon! I'm not ready! I have no presents, no cards have been sent yet and I have like a million little things to do for work! Wow...  I guess it will all get done it always does! Right! There's nothing like the Holidays!

I want to say Happy Birthday to yesterday's winner of my journaling tags and my paper line "Something for Everyone"... "Mommyof5kids"!! Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to you... you are my winner!
Please email me your address and I'll get this out to you next week!

Now I want to introduce you all to Katrina Hunt, Katrina is my local design team lead and my project coordinator too. We've been friends since before me starting this business, we actually met through our local dog club and Pet Therapy of The Ozarks. We both have therapy dogs that make visits to our local hospitals and nursing homes. I'm also the reason Katrina scrapbooks! Katrina called me one day and asked if I'd help her pick out what she needs to start scrapbooking.... so of course I took her out and showed her what she needs to start this fun hobby!  Well to say the least she is a bit out of control now, I've been scrabooking for over 20 years and I think she has more product and tools than I do! I know for sure she has 100 more punches than me! ;) ...she knows I love her! Katrina lives near me and is always helping me out with anything from getting ready for CHA to teaching with my products at our local scarpbook store.
Here we are teaching at our local scrapbook store, Scrapbook Generation, Katrina is teaching a mini class for "Nikki Sivils Day"! She is so fun, always makes me laugh and she's a great teacher too!

So here is Katrina's Christmas Tradition...

One of the things I love, love, love about Christmas is the cookies.  Yep, I love cookies. I just said it!
We basically are baking cookies all thru the month of December.  Now, I am not saying that all those
cookies make it to Christmas.  There are test batches that have to be done to meet quality standards. LOL

Top cookie on the list...well the Sugar Cookie of course.  And it has to be made from scratch dough, not
the refrigerator kind.  My roomie, Carleen, is the expert in this area.  These are her masterpiece, I just stand back
and provide moral support! 

Next, well it's a tie.  There is the Almond Bar Cookie that is always requested and it's perfect for those that like
a shortbread type of cookie.  Easy to whip up a couple of batches, drizzle with some powered sugar icing when
cooled and then you are good to go.

The other is the Peppermint Ball cookies.  These are like a Mexican Wedding type of cookie, but with peppermints
ground up in them.  Roll in powered sugar when right out of the oven....yummy.

Well, that's it for me. And oh yeah...I love to wear funny hats...Santa Hats, Elf Hats....soooo...what story is complete
without a picture?  This is me, at Sonic....and I love "Totty the Elf" during Christmas at Sonic.

Merry Christmas!!!!

 

Katrina Hunt

Visit Karina's blog:

www.paperscissorsandglue.blogspot.com

For today's giveaway I'm going to give away my three "Pocket of Treats" Stickers...

Leave me a comment on this blog post and tell me what your favorite treat is! Mine are Starburst Jelly Beans.... Oh my gosh I so love them! Really Really LOVE them! 

I want to share a couple of idea's that I and my design team girls have come up with for these fun stickers and the pocket they come in! 

Here is one I created for a "Couples Movie Night" with for our friends... 

                                              

                                                 

Here is a mini album "brag" I made for my sister out of the pocket...

(Perfect size for a brag book, 4x6)

 This card was created by my DT Diva: Deana Boston (which was the inspiration for my "movie night" invite)...

Thanks for all your great comments, I love reading how you celebrate Christmas and your Holiday traditions! I read every single one of them and love it! Thank you so much for your support!  -Nikki

Also don't forget to sign up for my free news letter to the left of this blog to win the "Santa Bag" of Nikki Sivils products valued at over $100.00!! That winner will be picked on the 14th of December! 

Christmas Traditions...

First.... yesterday's winners of my Burlap Buttons are Darrell & Christa Allgood.  Christa Allgood you won the prize from a number generator, but Darrell I picked you b/c your comment about your wife was just sweet! Darrell said "Every now and then I sneak in to my wife's work area and make her something using all her embellishments. It makes her cry with happiness!" That's just about the sweetest thing ever! So Darrell maybe you can sneak these burlap buttons on her table too! If both Darrell and Christa Allgood would email me your address I'll get your goodies out to you asap! Thanks!

 I grew up with Christmas traditions from both my mom and dad's houses, spending every other Christmas with each of them while growing up.  When I married Dan we brought our family traditions together and created a few of our own too! One of our favorites is opening up our new "Christmas PJ's" (which have all been pre-washed and ready to wear) on Christmas Eve. We put them on and then watch a pre-picked Christmas movie and drink hot cocoa! We love doing this every year!
Here is our Christmas Eve PJ picture from last year in front of the tree before we watch our holiday movie...

As soon as we set up the camera timer, Savannah our Lab-Mix turned to look at us like "what are we doing next"!  Love this picture of my family and I! 

I have seven people that I couldn't live without to help me run my company and keep me in check too! ;) So I'm going to highlight each of them in a different blog post over the next couple of weeks, tell you how I met them and what they do for Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker LLC.  (They are in no particular order, I love them all the same and adore each of them.).

First up is Julie Tucker-Wolek. Most of you know her as "bmwgirl" and the "smiley face gal", but she is also one of my design team divas! Julie has now become my blog and project coordinator as well. We'd all be lost if Julie wasn't scheduling who blogs when and putting up with my "oh Julie I forgot I have to blog the first 14 days of December" emergencies, where she then has to redo the entire blog schedule. I certainly don't make her life easy, that's for sure! Julie is also the gal that shows all the "non-design team ladies" work on my blog, which is actually one of my most favortie blog posts. I love seeing all the ladies that have bought and designed a layout, card and or altered project using my papers! It truly warms my heart!

I met Julie through another social media site prior to starting my business and we became fast friends due to our mutual love of Sandra Bullock and her movies! Especially Hope Floats! I've always been a fan of Julie's unique scrapbooking style and her sweet disposition, so when she applied for my design team from my first call... she was a "shoo-in"! I was and still am so happy to have her on my team! Thanks, Julie, for all you do for me, the DT and my company! You rock!

Here is Julie's Christmas Tradition:

I am a HUGE Christmas FANATIC!!!! My friends call me Mrs. Griswold (As in Clark Griswold from "Christmas Vacation"!)  I go overboard every year, usually decorating a week or two BEFORE Thanksgiving!!!! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)  I am VERY lucky for my kids and my husband are into Christmas too...and they start asking soon after Halloween when we can decorate for Christmas! (LOL! I am raising them right you know! LOL!) :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):) My husband is also Polish, so every Christmas Eve, the entire family gets together for Perogies!!! YUM!!! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
 Here are some family pictures Julie is sharing with us...

Be sure and check out Julie's blog; it's a hoot and if you don't know Julie you'll soon fall in love with her too! (Julie is also offering a "Nikki Sivils" giveaway too!) 

For today's giveaway I've decided to give away my Journaling Tags (all 4 sheets) and my complete paper line "Something For Everyone" of which every sheet in this paper line is named after a few of my design team girls and ladies that work for me. 

Leave me a comment and I'll pick one lucky winner to win all of this:

                                  
                                     

 and the sticker sheet too.... (which I left all blank so you can make it whatever you want)

This paper line "Something For Everyone" I made all the front sides of the papers not distressed and the backs are distressed so that you can pick what you like best.
Here is a layout that my DT Diva, Mimi Leinbach, created using this collection! I just love it!
                                      

Leave me a comment and you could be the lucky winner! 

TGIF!!! -Nikki

Oh and I almost forgot, many of you have asked where you can buy my "Happy Holly-Day's" collection, as it's sold out at most stores (which is actually exciting for us!), and also where you can find some of my other embellishments. Lanie (who works for us) put a list together and posted the list on Facebook (the Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker page) last night!  So here is the link for you: Retail Stores 

A Few of My Favorite Things....

Today I'm sharing a few of my personal favorite things, some of which I hope are your favorite things too or that you might be introduced to something new!  But first the winner from yesterday's giveaway is "Janet" who said "Wow--what a gorgeous line! Thanks for the chance to win." Janet's comment was the first comment for yesterday's post and I picked the first comment since yesterday was December 1st! (Janet email me your address and I'll get this out to you tomorrow.)

Now a few of my favorite things...

1. Elf on the Shelf! If you haven't stopped by this website then please take the time to do so! It's beautiful and if I had a little one this would be on my list!  

2. The Sound of Music (Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition, 1965)  *Dan if you are reading this I sure would like Santa to bring me this for Christmas!  You can get it here!

3. StorePhotos.com This is a fun site to stop in and see all their great Pioneer Photo Albums. I'm trying to create a scrapbook for my dad about his experience in the Vietnam war and I got my themed album from this store. They also carry other Scrapbook supplies - oh! and all their products are archival safe too! Their customer service rocks! So if you need a new scrapbook album or photo box (I love photo boxes) then this is where you need to go!
I love this album:

    
4. Croptopia Getaways!! Okay, so I've been asked to teach on this 7 NIGHT WESTERN CARIBBEAN CRUISE... and of course I said YES!!  I'd love to have all of you join me on this awesome cruise... so ask your sweet hubbies for this fun cruise for Christmas! (Or save all your dollars and take yourself!). They are offering "Early Bird Rates" and the ship is just over a year old!  I'm going to be teaching classes and doing make-n-takes; I'm also going to be giving a ton of PRODUCT away on this once in a lifetime trip! Woo Hoo....

5. Helmar Adhesive Scrap Dots!! If you haven't tried these great 3-dimensional liquid dots then hold on to your pants because they are a crafter's dream come true!! I love them! Tracy, the owner, and I have become friends from meeting at CHA and this is the only adhesive I use at all my CHA make-n-takes. It's my preferred adhesive! Thank you, Tracy, for your support and awesome adhesive!!
HELMAR ROCKS!!

6. The Nutcracker Ballet! If you haven't had a chance to go see this performance, then it's a must! Even if you don't like ballets, it's still a must see -- the music is fabulous! I live in a pretty small town, but it still seems to make it here every year. And it usually plays on public TV at least once during the month of December too!

7. Anyone that knows me well knows I'm Jenni Bowlin's biggest fan!! I get her monthly kits and love them! I think she is so talented and a great business woman who I continually look up too! I follow her blog and, well, I just adore her! I first met her over a year ago when she came into my booth at CHA and made a purchase for her monthly kits. It's actually kind of a funny story... Dan (my hubby) knew how much I loved Jenni (as I've been talking about her for years). So on our way to CHA I must have asked and talked about meeting her a thousand times, literally driving Dan crazy! Well, I was standing a little ways outside my booth at my first CHA talking to some friends when my hubby tapped me on the shoulder and said "Jenni's in your booth looking around." Well, I turned around to see if this was true and burst into tears when I saw her! JENNI BOWLIN WAS IN MY BOOTH... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! You can ask everyone that was around me... I had a hard time pulling my self together; seriously... I couldn't stop the tears! And there was no way I could write up an order for her, I was just too beside myself. I did ask her for a picture and she said "Why of course" in that sweet southern accent of hers.  And, by the way, she may be the nicest person I've ever met. Here is our first picture together:

If you haven't checked out her products, then you must! Our styles are very different but my products also seem to fit in well with some of her products too!

8. My Burlap Buttons - also called "Cute as a Button Burlap Buttons"! So...I know it's my own design and product, but I've been creating these little buttons for years prior to having them manufactured for my company! I'd find the perfect button, then cut some burlap out, hot glue it to the button then, once dry, I'd stitch the center,  I know, I know, a lot of work for a little button - but it gave so much texture and dimension, which are two of my favorite things when scrapbooking!  (Jenni Bowlin even bought a bunch for her kits last spring!)  I have 4 different colors of the buttons, blue, red, black and brown:

Soooo having said that...how about for today's giveaway I'll pick 2 lucky ladies to win all 4 sets of these Burlap Buttons! Leave a comment about your best "homemade" embellishment and I'll pick 2 winners tomorrow morning (Friday's) blog post!

I want to leave you with a picture of my sweet Alfred (a 12 yr old puppy-mill rescue) all dressed for Christmas!

Have a great day everyone! -Nikki

HAPPY DECEMBER 1ST!!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!! I love the entire Holiday season from Halloween to the New Year! All my Christmas decorations and trees are up... finally! (It took a bit longer this year!)

The question I get most is "How do you come up with your designs?"... well every thing I design is dear to my heart in some way, like my "Happy Holly-Day's" paper line, I came up with the name for that line b/c my mom has had this same round rug in her home for most of my life that only comes out at Christmas and it says...

                                   
"Happy Holly-Day's" so I knew that would be my paper line name, but wasn't sure where I was going to go with it??? I knew it would have Holly's in the mix of it, but wasn't sure what the main "character" would be... then I looked around my house and realized "Why a nutcracker... of course!" I collect nutcrackers, have for years and love them! And that's how this paper line came to be...

   

Here are a few of my nutcrackers I have out at Christmas...

And so that's how that paper line came to life! 

Are you ready for today's giveaway...

To kick off my first 14 days of December I'm going to give away the complete collection of my Happy Holly-Days paper line to one person who leaves a comment here on this post and to one person who leaves a comment on my company Facebook page! That's 2 chances to win my Christmas paper line! 

I'll pick one winner from the blog, right before I do my second blog post tomorrow morning (Thursday). The facebook winner will be announced on facebook not here.  

Don't forget to leave a comment both places for a chance to win "Happy Holly-Day's"!  

Also don't forget to sign up for my free news letter to the left of this blog to win the "Santa Bag" of Nikki Sivils products valued at $100.00!! That winner will be picked on the 14th of December! 

Happy Holly-Day's! -Nikki