Day 1 & 2 #Elf4Health Recap: Homemade Cards

The #Elf4Health challenge has been going great so far. Meatless Monday was a pretty good success and day two was a task that I was really excited for because it gave me an excuse to be creative AND get in touch with those most important to me. I had been planning on making all my own Christmas cards this year and this was a perfect start to it. The #Elf4Health task for day 2 was to send a handwritten note. I took it a step further and also made all my cards using my Silhouette machine (similar to a Cricut). 

Lately, I've been really wanting to get my creative spark going again and this seemed like a great activity to do it. I'm really happy with how they turned out and hope that the recipients enjoy them too. I really love handwritten notes and hate that email is taking away from that tradition. There is just something about a hand-written note that makes it that much more special than some plain text on a computer. Maybe because it feels like a tangible part of the person and their personality. Am I the only one that feels that way? I doubt it. 

Below are the cards that I made yesterday to be sent out to friends and family. I still need to make about 10+ more of them and hope to finish them by the end of the week.

This challenge reminded me about all the handwritten notes and cards I have at my parents from high school. They are locked up in a toolbox in the attic so I'm hoping to stop by there soon and hopefully be able to crack the passcode to get into it. I think it will be a great laugh to see those from the past and our silly antics. 

Do you miss the art of handwritten notes? 

Did you take part in day two of #Elf4Health? 

Did you save your notes from high school?

My New Love

Christmas is over and I can't believe how quickly it flew by.  It seems like every year it goes by quicker and quicker.  We had a wonderful Christmas (3 actually) with our families and I hope that everyone had a fabulous one as well.  It's been nice the past few weeks to see our family more often since we have been able to travel downstate.  Every time we go down, we always keep an eye out for our next dream house for the day when we finally move back down there (within a few years).

Speaking of Christmas, I got some amazing gifts.  I've had my eye on one thing for quite some time and finally have it! The husband did a great job and bought me the Silhouette SD!!

I finally had a chance to play with mine today since we were back in town after being gone the holiday weekend.  I LOVE it...already! I spent most of the morning and some of the afternoon playing with it.  I had never used any type of scrapbook/craft cutting device before so I was a little apprehensive, but it was so simple.  I love how many different types of projects it can do.  Today I worked on a Thank You card for our parents (only got one done though -- need more paper) and also made a cut out box.

I used a template for this since it was the first project I was doing.

So much easier than trying to do any of this by hand.

I plan on working on another card to send to the in-laws this week! Hoping to pick up some double sided paper tomorrow for several projects.  It came with a $10 gift card and I bought several other templates for thank you cards since I love them (I have a basket full of them, but handmade ones are so much better!)

The box template once it was cut & waiting to be punched out.

Lots of punching out to be done.  Not gonna lie, was a bit tedious
after awhile but also one of the most labor intensive ones.

All punched out and put together.  Need to tape together
at top once I get battery operated tea light for inside.

Won't it be gorgeous lit at night?

Close-up

Best craft glue...ever!

Messy desk...need to upgrade!

I can't wait to learn everything that this machine is capable of!

Does anyone else have one of these nifty machines?  Any favorite crafts you've done or seen?  Any must follow blogs for scrapbooking/Silhouette lovers?