Santa Claus is coming to town! But before he does we’d better get our Christmas letters in the mail so they can get to the North Pole in plenty of time! One of my children’s favorite holiday activities is writing letters to Santa, and this year I’ve used that magical mix of dreams and anticipation as the inspiration for our Whimsical North Pole Christmas Mantel and decorations.
This year I decided to do something completely different, and a lot more colorful, with my Christmas decorations. In the past I’ve stuck to fairly neutral tones with lots of gold and glitter, but this year I wanted something more whimsical, fun and colorful. The theme for my Christmas tree this year is Polar Post, a letters to Santa Christmas tree. I wanted the decorations on my mantle to match, but had trouble finding exactly what I envisioned so I decided to use my Cricut Explore Air 2 to create my whimsical decorations.
For my first project I had my husband help me cut out a stop sign shape from a piece of scrap wood I found in the garage. Once the stop sign was cut I sanded it and painted it red. While the paint was drying I opened up Design Space and created a simple “Santa Stop Here” saying for my sign. Click HERE to find the project in Design Space.
I cut the saying out in white and aqua vinyl and then used transfer tape to put it on my stop sign. I used red and white ribbon to hang it from a big aqua painted frame. This was a quick and simple project, but I love how it turned out. I’m thinking about making another one of these signs for our front porch, wouldn’t that be cute?!?
I needed another colorful sign, so I opened up Design Space to find some inspiration in the project section. I found this Be Good for Goodness Sake Wall Art project and thought it tied in perfectly with my North Pole theme. I simply resized the image so that it would fit on the wood board that I picked up at Michaels. Both of these signs took me less than 30 minutes to make and I love how they add the perfect pop of color and whimsy to my mantle.
All that was left was to hang the stockings with care, but of course we needed new ones that matched. I bought some plain white stockings and used my Cricut Explore Air 2 to cut out each of the kids names in red foil iron-on vinyl. I used the Cricut Easy press to iron-on the vinyl to the felt stockings. Have I told you how much I love the new Easy Press?!? The large heating surface area, heat temp guide and timer make projects like this so easy.
I decided they needed a little something extra so I cut out a few North Pole post sayings like “special delivery” “Do Not Open Until Christmas” and some Santa Mail post marks. I love how it transformed ordinary stockings into extraordinary fun and personalized stockings for my kids. They look adorable hung with my DIY felt Letters to Santa envelopes.
I am so happy I decided to stray from my traditional Christmas color scheme, I’m absolutely smitten with my whimsical North Pole decorations this year. For more fun Christmas inspiration be sure to check out my Polar Post Letters to Santa Christmas Tree.
Now that my house is all decorated for Christmas I’ve got the Christmas spirit, Tis’ the Season for giving! Today is your lucky day, because there are TWO, yes two giveaways, for you to enter. Christmas is coming early for two lucky winners. I want to help you get a jump start on your holiday decorating and give you the chance to win an early Christmas present just for you! I’m giving away a Cricut Explore Air 2 machine and a $50 Michaels gift card to one lucky winner, get all the details below and enter for your chance to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Because it’s the season of giving, my friends at Cricut want to give you a chance to win a Cricut Maker too! Use the Rafflecopter widget below for chance to win.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
I love these colors. Must be a trend this year because I’ve been making Christmas projects with these colors! Thanks for the chance to win this awesome giveaway!!!
Thanks Penny! These colors are a little untraditional for me, but I sure do love how it turned out so I can see why it’s popular this year. Good luck!
I really want to start using a cricut. If I don’t win this one, I hope to get one for Christmas!
Oops! Didn’t follow the directions. I am a teacher and I want to start using some of the cricut designs in my classroom.
My sister is a teacher and borrows mine to create things for her classroom all the time! Good luck.
This is so fun! I have a cricut expression and would love an updated one! Thank you for doing this!
Thanks for stopping by Nada, the Explore Air 2 is such an amazing machine you will love it. Good luck!
This looks awesome Mariah! Love the signs and the stockings!
I love the bright colors. I would make some Santa sacks.
Thank you Deborah! That sounds like a darling project, good luck!
Stockings for everyone!
That would be awesome, good luck!
I would make Christmas stockings.
Those would be so fun, there so many ways you can personalize them and make them special with the Cricut!
I would make personalized ornaments, home decor signs and items like that to gift.
Such fun projects, I know my family would love receiving personalized ornaments too. Good Luck!
I would love to make little snowflakes and decor with my 3 year old. We just bought a new home and are so excited to decorate this year!
Yay, decorating a new house will be so much fun with a Cricut. Good luck!
This looks great, I simply adore Christmas, so this is right up my street #ourminilinkyparty@_karendennis
Thanks Karen, I adore Christmas and all of it’s special traditions too!
make some cards and tags
Found your blog through the Create Link Inspire Party, glad I did! I love your mantle it looks great. My kids have taken over the Christmas tree so the mantle is the only thing I have left to design lol
What a fun color scheme, very bright and festive! Excellent tutorials, too. Merry
Wow!! Your decorations are so cute!!! I absolutely love all of them!! Great inspiration! I would love to win this machine, I have the original Cricut and would love to upgrade. Thanks so much for a chance to win.
I so love this! Everything of it: colors, decorations, just beautiful!
I am way behind on the Cricut and its capabilities. I have a Cricut Air and I use mine to make embellishments for scrapbooking, but haven’t used the vinyl yet. I quickly read through your tutorial above and you mentioned transfer tape. What is that? Is it a Cricut product or something I would buy in the adhesives section in the craft store? Thanks!
Hi Melanie, I love using my Cricut for vinyl projects. The transfer tape can be found at any craft store, but there is specifically a Cricut brand and I prefer that one over the generic stuff you can find at the craft stores. You use the tape to transfer your vinyl onto whatever surface you are putting it on, this just helps keep it all together in one piece. If you have more specific questions on how to use it you can always email me at mariah(at)gigglesgalore(dot)net.