Designs Archives - 2 Cats and Chloe

Christmas Tags for Christmas Bags! (or Boxes!!)

December 5, 2011 by Susan Leave a Comment

As you learned last week I am in the process of teaching myself some sweet photoshop skills. As I was walking through Target yesterday I decided that to SAVE money I could make my own gift labels this year with my newly acquired photoshop skillz! After playing around a bit, here are a few I came up with:

After some playing and designing on the computer I printed them out on card stock so that they were thicker and a bit more durable. I figure I can either tap them onto the gifts or I can punch a whole and tie a ribbon to them! Cute right? Cute AND free!

For my first batch I decided ribbons were necessary! The other day I went to Michaels Craft Store and stocked up on holiday crafty fun-ness! Somewhere in my bag of $75 worth of a purchase were two spools of glittery ribbon. I decided these were perfect for my gift tags!

Personally - I think they are spectacular! Not only am I already covered in holiday glitter but I have gift tags that are totally ME to put on the gifts for my friends and family! I really do love them. If I have a chance I am going to design another similar set just to have a bit more of a variety. And thennnnn… it’s time to get wrapping!!

They are free to you too if you want them too! Leave me a comment with your info and I will email a pdf of these to you! (Then, I just ask you share this blog with your friends & followers! I kinda want to set a goal to get a few more followers before the end of the year… you can help me! If you like what you see, click on that box over there to become a follower and pass my link on!)

Happy wrapping!!

Keep Calm… Thanksgiving

November 23, 2011 by Susan Leave a Comment

When I was growing up we would go back and forth between my dad’s family and my mom’s family every few years to celebrate Thanksgiving. It didn’t matter what side of the family we were with, we always had well over ten people at the dinner table.

Then I went to college and I decided to take advantage of the quick holiday and head to Europe, where they do not celebrate pilgrams and they do not eat turkey on this very special day.

For the past few years though, my family has been gathering around a smaller table, with just the five of us. (My sister, mom, dad, me and grandmother). In the beginning it was weird. After slaving for hours the handful of us just sat there in silence (because we had already discussed the 10 topics that were on our minds) and ate our meal.

About two years ago my sister and I decided that our small family Thanksgiving needed some traditions. I guess you can call things “tradition” when it happens more than once, right? Well, for at least the past two years in a row Leslie & I have had a mini photo shoot before we can eat pie and we’ve played family beer pong. (Little did we know my folks would school us in Thanksgiving drinking games…)

Three photos from 2009’s Turkey Day:

As I was looking through past photos I realized that apparently it is also a tradition for me to help mash potatoes too! Two years in a row! Here’s a few photo’s from Thanksgiving 2010:

This year we have a ton of family coming into town from Maryland. So I am guessing the family beer pong is OUT… but what is IN will be actually passing food around the table, working hard to prepare for a large group, decorating, catching up, and probably a bit of stress.

My poor mother has been on ‘vacation’ for the past three days and really has not stopped working for more than twenty minutes. Some vacation, right?! So I decided it would be very appropriate to put my new photoshop skills to work and make a “Keep Calm” sign to put in the kitchen on Thursday! I have seen several versions of these floating around the blogosphere so by no means am I taking credit for this idea… I just photoshopped one of my own.

What do you think? It only took me a couple of quick clicks and a minute of printing! I went to the dollar store today and bought a cheap 8×10 frame. I think it’s kinda perfect! I love the turkey and I especially love the glass of wine sitting with him! The retro cam photo above makes it look a bit red, but it is actually brown with tan writing.

Want a copy to print for your own kitchen tomorrow as a reminder to “Keep Calm and Gobble On?” You don’t even have to put it in a frame, just stick it on the fridge! Leave a comment below and I will email it to you! (I just ask you share this with your friends & followers!)

Gobble Gobble!

I decorated for the holidays!!

November 18, 2011 by Susan Leave a Comment

Well, not exactly. But I decorated the blog for the holidays! Today is the first COLD day of the season… I think we have a high temperature of 45 today! Shiver me timbers!! With Thanksgiving next week and the radio stations already playing Christmas music (yes, I have been listening to it!!) it has gotten me in the mood to decorate. HOWEVER. I have a rule. I cannot start decorating for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. Some of you who are over achievers and already have lights on the outside of your house may disagree with me, but I think we need to give Turkey Day it’s month to shine!

Since I do not break rules (very often!) I decided that I could decorate the blog! Last week my sister sat down with me and gave me a Photoshop 101 training session. Who knew the possibilities! I sat there in complete dismay when she showed me how people “design” things. I have now discovered brushes and patterns, so I am on to most of your tricks now!

I ended up designing my own Christmas card - which I can’t show you because then it won’t be much of a surprise when they show up in your mailbox next month! But I have also designed a few of our “Girl’s Night Out” invites!

I also took the blog header from this:

to this:

TO THIS!

So now I am ready to start getting festive! It’s the Friday before Thanksgiving! Time to start prepping the food and thinking about the holidays! Planning events and plotting a Black Friday bargain shopping escape route! Enjoying the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and a huge meal with the fam! (Pretty sure with relatives coming into town we won’t have our new tradition of ‘family beer pong’ this year…) And now the blog is all dressed up I am ready to share all of my holiday souvenirs with you! Have a happy weekend friends!