Lori Whitlock's Countdown To Christmas Blog Hop

Welcome!  If you are hopping along today you should be arriving here from Lisa's blog.  :)

Today I have a fun countdown garland to share using lots of Lori Whitlock's great cutting files and This and That Christmas papers & matching embellishments that she designed for Echo Park. 

I designed my project with a 12 days of Christmas theme.  Each stocking or mitten was cut twice (once out of patterned paper and once out of cardstock) and then sewn together to form a pocket to hold a different small treat each day. 

Please excuse my poor photos... We have been having terribly dark, yucky days here in the Pacific Northwest this week and I had to pull out every lamp I own to get these photos, but I was determined not to use my flash.  ;)

 

Each stocking and mitten can fit a small candy cane, pencils, stickers or other small trinkets. In hindsight I would have made them a tiny bit bigger to accomodate even bulkier items. Currently the stockings measure 6.5" long and the mittens measure 3.75". 

I used small natural clothespins which I took apart and stained with ink for a bit of a rustic feel.

I had so much fun decorating each one uniquely and having an excuse to use almost every paper in the collection! :)

For this project I used the following cutting files which are available for purchase at Lori's Shop:

Advent Mittens
Poinsettia
Christmas icons set 2 (holly)
Christmas icons set (stockings)
7 Labels (tag)
7 Labels 2 (bracket frame)
7 Labels 3 (bracket frame)
9 starburst seal set
Simple Borders
3 Eyelet Borders
3 Borders

...And these shapes which are currently only available at the Silhouette store (but look for them coming to Lori's shop soon):

Winter Tree (snowflakes only)
Simple Christmas Tree
11 Hearts
Snowflake

For the phrase on my tag, I also used Echo Park's 12 days of Christmas cutting file.
 
In honor of the blog hop, Lori is offering the shapes I used plus many, many more on a great 30% off sale!  Yay!!!    Lisa Bell has been hard at work adding many new holiday shapes to Lori's online store so it won't be hard to get up to $15!  My favorites from the new releases can be seen here, here, here & here.  Oh I could go on and on.  :)

 

And if that all wasn't enough, she created these awesome shape files which she is offering as a free download when you visit her blog through November 24th.

 

But that's not all...  Lori has also generously shared a $10 gift card to her shop which I am able to give away to one lucky person.  Just leave a comment on my blog by Saturday, November 24th at midnight Pacific time and then check back here on Monday to see if you are a winner.  :)

 

Visit my fellow teammates blogs for more great holiday countdown ideas and chances to win!  Your next stop is Amanda's blog.  :)

Lori Whitlock
Natalie Graham
Corri Garza
Joy Dickson
Lisa Bell

Mendi Yoshikawa (You are here)
Amanda Jones
Christine Ousley
Lisa Barrie

Thanks so much for stopping by! :)