Where has 2016 gone? I’ve been battling some illnesses the past two months, so the last two months have passed by very quickly and final preparations for Christmas were a mad dash in the Tague household this year as a result. Nonetheless, I thought since my Beyond Beaches & Blessings blog started in June 2016, it would be appropriate to recap some of my favorite projects from 2016 on this eve of the new year.

Let’s start with cards. Below are my three favorite card fronts. Although, a couple others rank right up there with these three when I look at my year of projects in totality. My Swirly Bird Meets Halloween card tops the list (with over 1,600 pins on Pinterest), followed by my Star of Light card from the September 2016 Pals Blog Hop, My Favorite Season. My third selection is new to my blog posts and was created using my favorite Designer Series Paper (DSP) from the SU! Holiday catalog, Candy Cane Lane. Although, I do love my Double Dutch fun fold card, too. Which one of these three card fronts are your favorite? Leave me a comment below, I love reading your feedback.

Swirly Bird Meets Halloween

Star of Light

Candy Cane Lane Gingerbread Man

I have a 12×12 Christmas Scrapbook I created many years ago that contains two to four pages from each Christmas and includes a copy of our annual Christmas letter and card. With Candy Cane Lane DSP being my most favorite paper collection, I just had to create the scrapbook pages for Christmas 2016 from this DSP collection. Of course, next on my “To Do” list is to finish this year’s Christmas pages. Take a look at the scrapbook page layout. Do you have a Christmas or Hanukkah Scrapbook you add to annually?  If not, I am happy to help you get one started.

Ask anyone who knows me, I LOVE making table favors and 3D paper-crafted gifts and gift boxes to hold candy or gift cards. In June, I made 120 table favors with a matching Birthday card for my sister’s 50th birthday celebration in Pittsburgh. However, I have chosen for my top two favorite 3D projects in 2016 my snack/gift card combo box from my November 2016 Pals Blog Hop, Anything But a Card blog post, and an explosion box that holds a gift card in the center. Who doesn’t love snack mix and who doesn’t have a need to give a number of gift cards as gifts throughout the Christmas or Hanukkah holiday seasons? I love each of these project equally. Check out my combo gift box with coordinating tiny card. Is it any surprise, I used Candy Cane Lane?

This second 3D item, is actually my favorite from a sentimental perspective. I created it to hold the gift card my team from work purchased for our Team Leader, Tom, for Christmas. This box is called an explosion box because when you remove the lid, the walls of the box fall open revealing a surprise. My apologies, as I grabbed this picture before I placed the gift card in the box. The gift card goes in the short holder just behind the gingerbread man. The sentimental part, I asked all of the members of our team to choose a marker (giving the inside some added color) and write a short personal greeting to Tom. Little did we know at the time we presented our gift to him, Tom will be leaving us on January 5 to move closer to family and begin a new career opportunity in New Jersey. Take a look at our now keepsake explosion box for Tom.  Notice how the top of the lid is decorated in the second photo.  I LOVE using markers to color a stamp so the image can be stamped in multiple colors!

Which 3D item is your favorite of the two? Did you check out the link to my table favors for my sister’s 50th Birthday? If you did, consider this one in sharing your favorite 3D item with me.

What a delight it has been for me to recap some of my favorite projects from 2016 and include a few new projects you haven’t seen yet. Please leave me some feedback and let me know which projects are your favorites from 2016. Happy New Year!

I am looking forward to all the new prospects 2017 will bring our way.  Are you?

Blessings,

Lynn