OUR RESOLUTION WRAP-UP...

is today.

And YES, I know today is the 18th of January.

But I believe we're allowed to tweak, perfect, elaborate and revise our goals for the new year all January long. It makes sense, don't you think? Thirty-one days to plan out the next 334. {LOL!}

So Lolly took her "2010 Resolution" assignment, and decided to turn it into more of a monthly journey. A journey to fun, crafty adventures. To do this she took a chipboard album and covered the front and back...plus one interior page.

For now, check out some pictures, and I'll walk you through what she did:

First of all, she embellished the H-E-double-hockey-sticks out of her front cover. She covered the chipboard with quilt batting and then went to town with anything she could find in teal and lime green. Chipboard swirls, patterned papers and supplies to make up some cuter-than-cute individual flowers. COOL STUFF!

For her "2010" title she used the Label from the Santa's Workshop and embellished the title with a Sizzix Butterfly. To make the butterfly "pop" she simply die-cut two of them, stapled them to each other along their spine and covered the staples with some adhesive backed pearls. FUN IDEA!

{I'm going to try and talk Lolly into showing us how to make these flowers. Don't you think that'd be a fun idea? Ohhhhh Lolly.....}

Okay, but moving to the inside of her mini-album...

She covered the insides of her chipboard covers with paper, fabric and other cute accents. She used the Spellbinders Label Three set quite a bit...she said it's one of her fave dies. She used some Thickers from her stash to personalize her book, but this font is just exactly like QK Studio. Such a great classic font!

On the first page in her album, she made space for a "monthly mini album". This will be added to, the first day of each month. She's already half way into her January album-lette, and is in love with the process. Here she used her Sugarplum Mini Album Bundle. And you'll never guess what she cut most of her pages from...brown paper lunch sacks! I love it! Perfect for sketching, punching, tearing, altering and doing samples on. How fun!

You can see here that she filled her January album to capacity, using only the squared pages. Decorated and embellished and ready to go - this is soon to be full of "Lolly craft-isms". She explained to me that she plans to create a new "page" the first of each month so she has a place to document fun stuff for the month ahead. That's her actual resolution. Being organized, being prepared and documenting so nothing is forgotten. I love the concept!

{Edited To Add - I forgot to point out that she used her Spellbinders Labels Three to cut a felt spine for her mini album...so fun! She cut the felt piece first, then laid it inside the Sugarplum album die to get the holes and the perforated lines. She made her own spine! She said she "felt" so clever!}

Here she is showing off just a couple of her first pages for the month. New die purchases, new punch shapes, color combos, sketch ideas...it will ALL go in this little January album. She thinks it is going to be fun to go back and look through the whole year, as she documents her favorite techniques, papers and die-cuts.

See how she put some vellum pages in over some of the kraft pages...love the look it gives. Soft and subtle...but still totally usable!

For the back cover Lolly used her Santa's Workshop Label again, along with the Santa's Workshop font.

An awesome project - that starts off with just one page. But as the year moves on this teal-beauty will get fuller and fatter, thicker and more inspiring. I envision it, a year from now, full of snippets and scraps, hunks hanging out and tid-bits tucked in. {Lolly - you'll show us some pictures come July...won't you?}

In fact - I think we'll have to have a "June Resolution Check-In" and see how the "Fab Four" is doing on their goals, their progress and the personal challenges. GOOD STUFF!

If you have a question for Lolly, leave it here. Well, write out some comment-love first, then tack on your question at the end. She'll get back to you with a comment-answer toot-suite!

Tomorrow, January 19th is release day for QuicKutz. January's release is amazing, and I can't wait to show you some of the ideas we've come up with

But you'll have to check back tonight.

Official QK release time is midnight EST. Which is 9pm in California, 10pm in Arizona and 11pm in Texas. So be here at the appropriate time, and prepare to be inspired.

I'm here for your habit...

QUICKUTZ HOLIDAY GREETINGS..

from your favorite lime green elf!

You know, ELF, as in Santa's little helpers. The helpers that are all around his big ol' workshop.

You know, Santa's Workshop! {wink, wink!}

Which just happens to be the name of the QuicKutz 2009 Holiday Gift Set..."Santa's Workshop".

This gift set is AMAZING. It's also a lot of other adjectives, but for now let's just leave it at amazing. Because I have lots to share with you, and you don't want to read a bunch of words!

See, I know you!

Here are the contents of the QK Gift Set...in visual form. Lots to look at because this gift set is packed with lots of dies. Which means lots of possibilities!

The dies to make three different sized mini-albums, a lower-case cookie cutter font and a bunch of nesting/graduated accessories for embellishment purposes.

If that sounds confusing - how about this:

Hopefully that makes it a bit easier to understand. LOTS of dies, lots of options, lots of mixing-and-matching. QuicKutz has done it again!

BUT HANG ON...there are lots of add-ons that go along with the QK Gift Set. Sure you could live without them, but they are fun. They are embellies, they are shizzle and they are available right now.

The Peppermint Album add-ons...a scalloped page, a pocket-page and some decorative spine sets. Oh the thrill!

The Sugarplum Album add-ons...a scalloped page, a bracket page, a pocket-page and the decorative spine sets. {do you detect a pattern here?}

The Wintergreen Ablum add-ons...the pocket page, the scalloped page and the decorative spine set

Now - lots of mixing and matching can go on here. All of the Sugarplum pages will fit in the Wintergreen album...good stuff. And all of the pages can have the hole-punches trimmed off to be used as photo mats, journaling blocks or card fronts. LOVE IT!

And how about just the decorative spines? Trim them in half and you've got all kinds of frilly edges to overlap on photos, mini borders or cards. So dang cute!

But hey - how about some ideas and inspiration and downright enabling?

That's what I thought...bring on the ideas!

Let's start with one of my favorites - the Gingerbread Epic Album set.

Love, love, love this set. It's big (5.25"x 5.75"), it's got lots of fun pieces-parts and it can become whatever you little heart desires!

My heart desired it to become a November album for my family - which we started filling in yesterday, on the first. I used Chicken Noodle for the opening page, along with the Santa's Workshop font - and then filled up the album with twenty-six pages of scallops, brackets, squares, pockets and tabs!

The more I got into it - the more versatile the parts became. Here is the pocket page, which I see bunches of uses for! Tags, receipts, tickets, brochures, extra pictures. It's all possible with one little pocket!

You just have to love it - don'tcha?

Here is the Peppermint Album, which is part of the Gift Set. Love that the "belly band" can easily become Santa's belt and buckle!

I filled this book with twenty pages - cardstock, patterned paper, pocket pages and more!

Wouldn't this be cute as a stocking stuff - to open up on Christmas Eve? Everyone in the family fill in a page - with memories, or thoughts, or favorites or inside jokes. That's my plan! OH - and the numbers on the front page are the Santa's Workshop font cut from the QK Adhesive Backed Metal sheets. LOVE THIS STUFF!

And don't think just albums. Here is the Wintergreen album pieces used just as a card.

I used the album cover from the Gift Set, but added in the Wintergreen Spine and some scalloped window parts from the Heritage Set. The entire set - so amazing!

{And just as a quick side-note, I used the QK Adhesive Backed Plastic sheets for my window effect - so dang easy to get a great look I think!}

Here is an album quickie - made from the Sugarplum pieces of the Gift Set, as well as the Sugarplum Bundle. Decorative spines, frilly pages and tiny little pockets. So dang cute!

This little guy has twenty pages inside, and could have held a few more! Lots of fun shapes and sizes in this one. Love that the spine is extra wide...1/4" to be exact...so it easily holds a bunch of fun snippets!

FUN FUN FUN! This one is just for me!

And I did this one at the last minute, just to show you some size comparisons. This is the Wintergreen album, part of the Gift Set, but also using parts from the Wintergreen Album Bundle. I love this size and the horizontal orientation.

The cover will easily hold any four-letter word you want it to...cut from Diesel. {LOL} This is also the Santa's Workshop font, found in the Gift Set. Don't those two look great together? I sure think so...this one is going to become a standard!

Now for the cover on this little guy - I wanted to try something different. I cut the album front and back {which is all one piece} from the QK Adhesive Backed Chipboard and from two different pieces of patterned paper. I stuck everything together, which was easy since the chipboard is sticky on both sides.

This made for a nice, sturdy cover - and the album easily held six pieces of cardstock for its pages.

WHEW - I'm exhausted and drained. I have the cutest darn project to show you tomorrow. It's from one of my own QK Elves. She sent it to me tonight but I'm running out of time. And there's always tomorrow.

If you have ANY questions about the Gift Set or the pieces associated with the set, do let me know. Leave a comment or send me an email. I'll do my best to get back with you immediately!

Hope you've enjoyed your first glimpse of Santa's Workshop. I think it's going to be enjoyed for a long time to come!

I'm here for your habit...