My Favorite Things December Blog Hop and Shop

Hey there, MFT Fans! Welcome to my stop on the Blog Hop for all the new releases! Hopefully you came here from the blog of myBFF Barbara Anders, and if not I highly recommend you go back to Kim's blog to start at the beginning! You won't want to miss all the final fabulous cards and projects from the Design Team and the Temp Team members, and you certainly don't want to miss your chance at winning! Be sure to leave a comment on each blog as you hop along! One lucky winner will be chosen at random to win a $15 gift voucher to shop in the MFT store! The winner will be chosen on Friday and will be posted in the MFT Forum.

For my project tonight, I'm using the Clearly Sentimental about Love stamp set again, and the Hearts a'Plenty Die-Namics that you've seen me using a lot these last few days. When I first got the die, my wheels started turning because one thing I have always loved about Christmas is making ornaments and my favorite kind to make are from felt with blanket stitching around the edges. Over the years I have made mittens, Santa faces, angels and other things with that great country/primitive look of the felt and blanket stitching. So I started thinking about what I could do with these heart shapes from the die. And then I was looking over the sentiments in the Clearly Sentimental about Love set and it struck me that a lot of them reminded me of the sayings you find in fortune cookies (only these are a LOT better than some I've seen!) So my wheels kept turnin' and eventually I came up with this idea for a Love Tree! You can pick a heart from the tree, and get a yummy piece of chocolate with your "fortune" instead of a dry ol' cookie!

Now I'm really doubting that these branches will survive around my house until Valentine's Day, but the little hearts with their "fortune" sentiments certainly will and my plan is to set this up at work for our employees and for some of my favorite customers! Each little heart holds a Hershey's nugget, and each one has a different sentiment from the stamp set hanging off the string. You could easily fit a Hershey's Kiss in these too, and even the Hershey's Miniatures would work well too (and as Valentine's Day approaches you'll be able to find them in appropriate colors, too!)
I know it looks like a lot of work but honestly they came together rather quickly! I cut out all the hearts using the largest heart from the Hearts a'Plenty Die-Namics, then did all the blanket stitching while I sat with my hubby and watched the Browns clobber the Panthers this past Sunday! And I was able to quickly stitch on all the buttons while my daughter was at the dentist the next day. There are 16 altogether and the time I spent cutting out the hearts and doing all the stitching was probably no more than 3 hours.
Many more ideas came to me with something like this, too. How CUTE would this be on display at a baby shower with blue and pink hearts all over it, and tags stamped with the Clearly Sentimental about Babies stamp set? Or set it up at school during Teacher Appreciation Week with tags stamped from the Clearly Sentiment about Teaching set? Or set it up at church for Mother's Day with Clearly Sentimental about Mothers on the tags? The possibilities are endless, especially if Kim keeps coming up with more awesome dies and stamp sets! (hint, hint.... we need an apple die, Kim!)

So I hope you've enjoyed my stop here on the hop! Stay on track by heading over now to Megan Lock's blog and see what fabulous-ness she has in store for you!

Many, many, many thanks to Kim for inviting me to be a part of the Temp Team this month and thanks to Jody Morrow for all the hard work she puts in keeping everything incredibly organized! I had a blast!!!