Archive for December, 2009

Hi everyone!  Thought I would add a post now that the paper has all settled and the gifts are all open.  Unfortunately, I have been on my back or standing for the last two weeks.  So I have been concentrating on getting over back issues.  This week has been the first time I could sit for longer than 10 minutes.  It’s a strange thing, it comes on you all of a sudden then it won’t leave.  Thanks to Dr. Ashby my Chiropractor I’m almost as good as new and yesterday was first day back to exercising.  I gained 5 pounds just having to lay around (no I didn’t stop eating) so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

Hopefully, I’ll get back in the creative mode and start showing some new things.  I got 3 new carts for Christmas and a hint of more coming for my Birthday.  Also, Phyllis has got me interested in a new technique she discoverd with Utee.

This is the first year I have left my Christmas decorations up past Christmas day.  I plan to start taking them down today.  Will have to see how my storage comes out since I made so many new ornaments for my tree.  I also can’t find the storage boxes I want, so I guess I should have bought them when I saw them.  Just my luck, no excess inventory this year.

Thanks for dropping by and I’m looking forward to the New Year!

Just in case you noticed that the postings seem a little bit random, that is because we discovered that there was a wee little bit of a bug in my system.

We have gotten that fix and it is playing catch up on postings I did before Christmas.   Thanks for your patience as we work diligently to get things back to normal.

Believe it or not this is a gift card holder that I made into a tag for a present.  I got this gift card cut file from SVGcuts.com (click here). 

This is a circle gift card holder and I edged it with silver German glass.

I purchased the 3-D Wintergreens cut file from SVGcuts and this is the poinsettia from that file.

Two groups of leaves and then I cut the rest out of red.

On both the leaves and the flower petals I took my bone folder and put a line down the center of each petal.  I then folded each petal (or leaf) in half to give it some shape.  Fold them up not down.

I also used the bone folder to curve some of the ends of the petals up and some down.  This adds to the flowers interest.

Start stacking the various elements together offsetting them as you add each layer.  I also used some dimensional stickers to add some lift between the petals layers.

I needed some yellow small cuts for the center of the flower.  Now while I could get them off of the original cut file I had trouble with my mat holding the glitter card stock scrap I was trying to use up.  So, I pulled out a MS punch that had these little tiny leaves and cut them out that way.

Yes, this is all made out of paper with some Stickles added for another dimension.

Here are the final elements.  The snowflake is from the Circut Solution cart named When it’s Cold Outside.  These are absolutely beautiful snowflakes on this cart.  In my opinion a must have Solutions cart, it is also a limited edition so it may be hard to find and pricey in the future.

I used a white pen to put the To: From: information on the inside of the card.  Yes, it’s Bar-B-Que and in Texas that is a staple.

Final product….I know what you are thinking…the gift card tag is larger than the present.  You are right because I don’t want her to just toss the tag aside since that tag is the actual present and the gift that is holding it is just a small token of our appreciation for this Aunt.

I adhered the flower a little off center so the snowflake could get some attention too.  The 3-D Wintergreen kit from SVGcuts is an amazing file  (it is also inexpensive around $5.99) and they also have a video tutorial to show you how to put them together.  I don’t get anything from SVGcuts for reviewing their cut files or mentioning them; however, this site gives you so many free cut files that you have to give back somehow.

Christmas Crackers?  I receive free cut files for Scal2 from a website called SVGcuts.com.

I stuffed these crackers with candy.  These are 9″ long from end to end so the middle part that you stuff is not that big.

The first cracker I made I used a glitter paper that was colored on one side and white on the other.  This worked ok but the stiffness of  the paper made it difficult to glue together.

I also didn’t like the the white showing on the ends.

I decided to see if using some wrapping paper would work (plus it matches the presents) and I would double side the cracker.  The outside being the black and white striped and the inside being the silver.

Hmm, something didn’t turn out right.  What I discovered was I needed to flip the image.  It is the same principle when you are sewing a garment and you need to put right sides together (or in this case wrong sides together).

In this picture because I didn’t flip the image you can see the silver didn’t cover the inside correctly.

Testing #2 – Since all I needed to cover on the inside of the cracker are the ends, I added a rectangle to the image that I flipped so it would cut out the middle.  This makes adhering  the red to the inside of the black and white polka dot cracker easier to manage.

It works very nicely.  I trimmed off the excess white that is showing on this one and then I went back into my file in Scal2 and increased the size of the flip image a little.

I use clothes pins and clips to hold the cracker together as the glue dries.  I use Glossy Accents as my glue of choice because when you glue paper to paper it only takes about 5 seconds for it to dry.

I like using the wrapping paper because it is more flexible when you go to glue the sides together.  Another good point in using the wrapping paper is I used those left over pieces that I usually just throw away.  Using the wrapping paper saves my scrapping paper for a better project since once the crackers are opened they will be thrown out.

Twist one end and tie a ribbon around it, stuff it with your choice of items and then twist the other end and tie it with another ribbon.

Super easy, super cute and a nice way to add some candy to a Christmas stocking without it falling through to the toe.  It also sits well in the stockings and it is inexpensive to fill.  My suggestion would be to use Brach’s candies, they are already individually wrapped and they are small enough you can get a nice variety in the Christmas Crackers.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

We worship and adore you!

Have a great day with your family, Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!

My DGD loves Elmo, so I decided to make a tag for one of her gifts.  I used the cartridge Everyday Sesame Street Friends.

I think this tag (although really not a tag, I just found an image I thought would make a cute tag) came out so cute.  Looks like he is hanging on to the bow.   I can’t wait for her to see Christmas Day.

You have to get the color on these characters just right to make sure they look like the actual thing.  I used a Sarkura pen that puffs up a little after it drys to make the nose.  I just used a black pen to color in the mouth and do some of the lining and eyes.  I also used a white pen to put the white around the eyes.

My #1 daughter collects snowmen and so this year I decided I would make tags for her family’s gifts out of various snowmen.  I posted earlier this week the one I made for her husband and this present sports the one I made for her.

He is so cute and you can tell that this snowman (or should I say snow woman) is loving the snow.

I’m using the new Very Merry Tags Solution cart.

I’m working on my Mantle decorations and discovered I needed to raise some candles up.  Over the years I have bought 8 single battery operated candles.  I needed a group of a group of candles (5 to be exact) that were graduated down from the center.

 I remembered I had a bunch of lids that came off of the clear cylinders that I use to store my various paint pens and glues pens (you should store them on their sides to keep the ink flowing easily).

Why not take those lids and recycle them by tapping them together? 

Yep! that works great.  So, I needed 5 lids, then two sets of three lids to get the graduation that I needed for the lifts.

The picture is a little dark but you can see how they are used under each of the single candles.  The middle one has the most lids taped together and then they are graduated down on each side.

With the Peace in front of this and a few strands of vines laying on the mantel it creates the look I’ve been looking for.  Who knew some small clear lid and tape would work so nicely and it’s a great way to recycle.

I have loved altering Christmas ornaments this year for some reason.  I’m looking each time I go for something that I can add to or change in some way to make it fit my new color scheme.

The black part of this ornament is flocked and the silver part is a metallic.

I took a very narrow two side tape and ran it around the ornament where the black flocked part meets the metallic end.

I used red German Glitter Glass to add the thin red line to the ornament.  Perfect!  That was just the touch it needed.

For some reason I don’t have a lot of red paper.  I pulled my scraps but didn’t find anything I thought was the right red.

I decided I would see how wrapping paper would work.  I’ve had this wrapping paper for a number of years and I’m finally getting down to the end of the roll.

I cut the tag out and cut down the red wrapping paper so it would fit inside the tag.

Because this is white on white you’ll have to click on the picture so you can get a better view of the red wrapping paper being glued to the back of the white tag.

This looks great but it still needs a little something more, besides I don’t want someone to turn the tag over and see the unfinished product.

To finish it off I glued it onto the tag shape in black on blackout and then added an eyelet to make it easy to tie the ribbon onto the gift.

Very cute!  The other great thing is it uses up those small pieces of wrapping paper that is never big enough to wrap a present.

Yesterday, while I was at Michaels’ my wallet was stolen.  Within an hour they had already filled their tank up with gas and spent over $180.00 at Best Buy.

Lucky, for me my bank was right across the street from Michaels’ and I immediately closed down my accounts and cards.  Now the rest of the work is on me to get my DL replace and make sure all of the things I had attached to my account get attached to my new account.

Here is my tip, make sure your wallet, credit cards, Driver’s License are in a secure place.  Unfortunately, my purse was open and they just reached right in and took it out.  Hard lesson learned but you better believe I got the message and it won’t happen again.

Had to dig out my Birth Certificate and now I get to go get a new DL and deal with all the inconvenience. 

Now the bright side of this, the charges are covered by fraud insurance on the cards and they did not get away with much and I started praying for God to give them nightmares, flat tires and engine trouble; but now I’m praying that God saves them.